David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members know, the Government of the Northwest Territories inherited filing requirements from the National Energy Board when we took over responsibility for oil and gas activity onshore here in the Northwest Territories. We have strong regulations and rules in place to protect the environment. We’ve heard from the standing committee. We’ve heard from the public. We’re halfway through the process that we have today embarked upon. We heard about water quality, air quality and disclosure. We’re addressing these things, Mr. Speaker. I know the Member has said, while there...

We do do that type of work, and I guess a good case in point is the Tuk Inuvik Highway. It was very important that the money stay in the North and that local contractors were involved there. We see the benefit of that with the employment levels in both communities of Tuktoyaktuk and also in Inuvik and other communities in the Beaufort-Delta as well.

There are ways the government can continue to emphasize the importance of keeping money here in the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to look at opportunities to do just that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We looked at this a few years back and we had contracted a company to take a look at the scenarios and how we could do our bid adjustments. A couple of different scenarios were put in place and at that time it wasn’t considered necessary to be looking at the changes to the current adjustments. But that’s not to say that as we go forward, Members and the business community here in the Northwest Territories may have other ideas on how we can strengthen the Business Incentive Policy here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

We’ve been at this for all of 14 months. It’s been our responsibility to manage oil and gas activity onshore in the Northwest Territories. It’s only been 14 months.

We are in a process right now. That is not the question. The Member is trying to ask that question. That is not the question we’re asking right now. Don’t we owe it to the residents of the Northwest Territories to better understand exactly what we’re getting ourselves into before we ask that question, before we throw that opportunity out for the people that live in the central Mackenzie Valley and in the Sahtu who are hungry for the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We worked long and hard to get our Devolution Agreement with the federal government. We also made a decision to regulate the oil and gas industry here in the Northwest Territories ourselves. Had we not made that decision, the industry would be regulated from Calgary by the National Energy Board, and Members on the other side of the House would not have the opportunity to question anybody and our government wouldn’t have opportunity to influence policy or direction on regulations. That would be left up to the National Energy Board of Canada.

What we have in front of us is...

We need to know what we’re getting ourselves into. We’ve spent the last four years, we’ve had trips to the Bakken, to Calgary with Members of the standing committee. We are trying to learn and trying to understand, and as I mentioned in response to some questions yesterday, not every basin is the same. The water quantity that would be required to frack a well in the central Mackenzie Valley is not the same as the Bakken. The geology is much different. We have to understand all of these things. It’s easy to make a decision and just cast an opportunity aside. We want to study that opportunity...

It’s too bad I can’t ask questions to the Member because I’d like to ask the Member where she found out that I was quoted as saying that at any cost we want development in the central Mackenzie Valley. I never said that, so I want to get that on the record as well.

We have a process in place and we are going to continue that process. We haven’t made any decisions, and some of the rhetoric that’s coming from some of the Regular Members, it would say that we have made decisions. We haven’t made any decisions and I want to be clear on that.

We’ve given ourselves more time. We’ll take as much time...

As Members know, as part of our decentralization we did move the BIP office to the community of Hay River. I will get the information that the Member is asking for and I’ll provide that to all Members when the registry is reviewed and when that happens. Thank you.

If we were going to go down the path of opening up a review of the BIP, key stakeholders like the NWT Chamber of Commerce, the NWT Construction Association and other industry associations would certainly be part of that.

For the most part, we believe that business here in the Northwest Territories is benefitting from the current BIP that we have in place. We have heard some concerns that it needs to be strengthened. There needs to be more protection for what I would deem as true northern businesses with headquarters here in the Northwest Territories and employees here in the Northwest...

Leadership is not taking a world-class opportunity that we have in the territory and putting it on the sideline. What we’re trying to do is manage this. We’re trying to get out; we’re trying to educate the public; we’ve been to many communities; we’re halfway through the process that’s underway today; and we can manage this resource.

I’m getting the feeling that some Members on the other side of the House don’t believe that we can manage this resource and that we can do it in an effective way. We want to manage the environmental concerns. We want to manage the opportunity that this presents us...