(YELLOWKNIFE) March 6, 2009 – The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories, the Honourable Paul Delorey, yesterday presented the 2009-2010 Main Estimates for the Legislative Assembly. Mr. Delorey highlighted a number of important initiatives that the Legislative Assembly will carry out within the next year. 

“I feel what we are doing as an Assembly is very important and I want the public to know that the Legislative Assembly is showing leadership in environmental and personal responsibility,” says Mr. Delorey. Some of these initiatives include: 

• the installation of a wood pellet boiler at the Legislative Assembly, which will reduce the Assembly’s greenhouse gas emissions by over 90 percent; 
• a paper reduction strategy that will reduce the Legislative Assembly’s use of paper by 80 percent; 
• introduction of regulatory amendments to allow Members to use their constituency budgets to purchase carbon offsets from institutions meeting the “gold standard”, which will allow Members to use their budgets to promote a carbon neutral approach to representing their constituents; 
• the Legislative Assembly is going to ‘drop the pop’ and remove disposable water bottles from the Legislature including private meetings and functions; 

“The Legislative Assembly is the most important public institution in the Northwest Territories. As law makers, role models and politicians we must practice the habits we want people to emulate,” says Mr. Delorey. 

For more information, contact: 

Paul Delorey, Speaker 
Legislative Assembly of the NWT 
P: 867-669-2234 
F: 867-873-0273 
E: paul_delorey@gov.nt.ca