Bob Bromley

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think this Mineral Development Strategy is something that’s underway. I know we’ve got a lot of happy industry out there. I’m not sure that that’s totally in line with the public interest, but we seem to be handing the strategy over to them and saying go for it.

But I want to bounce off the Minister the statement that we don’t need more mines as much as we need more residents working in the mines we have, and better economic rent or return from the extraction of our resources and then replacement of mines as they reach the end of production. A good way to do this would...

Was there an internal competition for these dollars? Obviously you had a couple of projects here, economic mineral development strategies. How did that work? Thank you.

Madam Chair, just to follow up on that, is that something we then pass on to that council or is it a benefit to this government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

What standards will be in place in the NWT to govern gas flaring at petroleum exploration and production sites of horizontal fracking operations?

Is the release of toxic emissions, including carcinogenic gases, allowed under regulations, and what will be the regulatory limits for toxic emissions, including volatile organic compounds, carcinogenic gases and other related fracking emissions at flaring sites?

What will be the minimum safe distances for location of homes or human activity from carcinogenic...

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...