Bob Bromley

Thanks to the Minister’s comments. I appreciate that. I think this is an opportunity to do some serious navel gazing to see how well we’ve done and how productive our work has been with internal efforts versus through contributions. I know there seems to be an effort out there that restricts contributions to projects that are less than an acre in size. To me, that’s completely crazy. It ignores the size of our communities and so on and I have to wonder where that’s coming from.

I think the Minister is on the right track and good, full discussions on this with all of our partners who are out...

Thanks to the Minister. So I appreciate that this will be a very broad review and, I’m assuming, the Minister replied with some interest in looking at the Finnish system.

Will the Minister report to the committee on the results of the review of the Finnish system and really work with us on a plan to adopt, fund and implement those aspects that we think are warranted?

Mr. Chair, I’m just wondering where we’re at in response to recovering from the episode of moving ECE for a few years and now back under this Minister’s leadership. What is our debt situation and how are we doing with collections? If I could just get an update on that area. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will give the Minister a chance to get his seat there. I do appreciate the Minister’s support for agriculture under the economic diversification business support side of things. I know he had a bit of a peak experience with the Polar Egg move. I just want to explore the Growing Forward Program a little bit. I understand it’s being renewed, Growing Forward 2. Of Growing Forward 1, what proportion of the funds – I don’t remember how much it was – was allocated to contributions to other parties and what was spent with our own programs internally, agricultural programs...

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister. I haven’t myself, either, and I know most of us haven’t. Perhaps some have, and it would be good to hear from them.

I’m wondering, does the Minister agree that, based on what we have learned, the noise involved, the noise levels, the hundreds of thousands of large trucks and generators per frack, the indescribable amounts of water, cement and chemicals used, that based on this, an on-the-ground visit by those involved in regulating and those who are going to experience it on their homeland, an on-the-ground visit to an active fracking site would provide some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the Minister is committed to water quality preservation, so he will understand how little we know about the state of our surface waters and the potential impacts of fracking contamination. We can’t permit fracking without knowing how it will eternally affect our waters.

Will the Minister commit to commissioning the research necessary to understand the threats and prepare for the need to act fast with supplementary budget requests if required? Mahsi.

Thanks for the comments from the Minister. It’s good to know that we’re on this.

Regulation of the exploration and production process is another critical matter. I mentioned the particular threat of failure of drill casings and contamination of massive amounts of water. We need a review of other jurisdictions’ regimes and evaluation of their suitability for our needs, then action to develop and put in place our own regs. Perhaps that’s part of what Mr. Minister was referring to.

Upon the release of the government response to our EDI report, will the Minister move quickly to contract and manage a...

Thanks to the Minister again for those comments. Sounds good.

I also appreciated the comment earlier from the Minister that there needs to be integration between these various strategies like the Anti-Poverty Strategy and so on. A challenging job, but I will be looking forward to that. I did appreciate that comment. That’s all I have on this page.

Some who haven’t affected bans are now realizing steep costs to people’s health, drinking water, climate, livestock, wildlife, municipal systems and so on. All this to mine an energy source that is destroying our global climate and the ability of our natural system to support life and cultures as we know them.

Healthy and beneficial energy alternatives abound. I will have questions for the Minister. Mahsi.

Of course, much of what I was saying here was picked up by the Minister himself during the 16th Assembly when I really agreed with him on this. I wonder what the situation… I don’t hear these sorts of kerfuffles in Botswana or Norway. The process seems to be straightforward, the benefits to the public who own the resource are very straightforward, the standards are clear and are met and, in fact, are standards held up globally. We don’t hear about the sorts of things that we hear right here in the Northwest Territories, where we’re left holding the bag and our people have been removed from...