David Ramsay

Thank you. Certainly the government in its interdepartmental exercise when it comes to preparing ourselves for the development in the Sahtu, that work has happened already. If the Member is looking for a checklist, we can certainly develop a checklist. But the most important thing here is the people in the Northwest Territories will be making those decisions on whether or not development happens in the central Mackenzie Valley, and central to that is the fact that the people of the Sahtu should have, should they choose to have the aspirations to develop those resources, the same, not people in...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We would, of course, look at the winter roads and the provision of services on those winter roads. We try to treat them all the same, but in the case of an area like the Sahtu with all the activity that is going on there, obviously we have had to do more in that area because of the number of trucks going across the winter road.

I’m not sure if the Member has a specific question. We would be more than happy to try to answer it. We maintain. We build I think it is close to 1,500 kilometres of winter roads in this territory every winter. Thank you.

Thank you. A lot of these are items that we are still currently trying to work out with the contractor. We’re hoping to have the Trout Lake Airport complete by next summer, and we have experienced some wet weather, some other issues with the project itself, but we are continuing to work out and iron out the difficulties to try to get the project completed by next summer. I have made a commitment to the Member that we’re going to sit down with the community and make sure the project does see its way through to completion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One thing is for sure and that is we have to do our homework, and part of the trip to southeastern Saskatchewan and into the Bakken was to do some of that homework, educate ourselves on the process of hydraulic fracturing, as was the case last year when we went to Calgary, went to a lab there and got time in front of the regulator in Alberta and also the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission that happened in Calgary last year.

We need to ensure that we do everything we can to make an informed decision as a government, as a people. I mentioned it yesterday, the aspirations of the...

Last year may have been the remnants of the BCP funding. We don’t have any BCP funding this year; hence, we have no dollars for Highway No. 8. Again, I can’t, you know, reiterate enough how important it is that we are successful with our Corridors for Canada III proposal to the federal government. We need this investment in our infrastructure across the territory. Thank you.

The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment would have helped communities fund these workshops that have been much anticipated in the Sahtu. For a detailed breakdown of costs and who is paying for what, I will make a commitment today to get the Member that information. Certainly, we have been looking for partners to help pay for these workshops. That is how we have gone about this, is partnerships, and if that’s with industry and communities, that’s how we are going to continue to pursue getting people the education that they need when it comes to making an informed decision about...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a lot of misinformation out there when it comes to hydraulic fracturing, and the Northwest Territories is no different.

It has been suggested many times that we do more community meetings and workshops when it comes to hydraulic fracturing. At the suggestion of the community of Fort Good Hope, who wanted a third-party workshop to be set up in the communities in the Sahtu – the Member mentioned the communities of Norman Wells and Fort Good Hope – this week. We are also hoping to have meetings take place in Deline and also Tulita. The meeting in Fort Good Hope...

Mr. Speaker, there is probably about 75 million reasons why Conoco does drill those wells in the Sahtu this winter that I can come to the Sahtu with the Member. Certainly, I know industry has been open to getting visits to well sites, allowing people onto their working areas to show them the process, to show them how it works. I must say we had an opportunity near Weyburn, Saskatchewan, to get out on a well that was being fracked. I must say, it wasn’t very exciting. Some of the pressures were going up and the lights were flashing, but certainly the earth wasn’t shaking. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we probably have some of the most stringent regulatory requirements in North America here in the Northwest Territories. Nothing is going to happen unless it is regulated. Certainly after devolution, we will have a regulatory authority here in the Northwest Territories. It remains to be seen exactly how that is going to look. We continue to work towards that.

I want to give the Member and others the assurance that this is not going to be the Wild West with wells being drilled everywhere. We don’t have the issues that they have in North Dakota with a myriad of different land owners...

Anything we do in that regard would have to be done in conjunction with my colleague Minister Miltenberger, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and we would certainly look at getting the information out there. If it is hosting another community education symposium or workshop, call it what you will, that is what we want to see happen. We need to continue to get the misinformation off of the table and the real facts put squarely on the table. Thank you.