David Ramsay

During the winter months with the advance of the winter road season in the Northwest Territories, I do know the RCMP are very diligent on stepping up their efforts to look at drugs that are being transported on the winter road system in the NWT.

Also, we have the Not Us! campaign. Important to all of this discussion today in the House is everybody has a role to play in trying to stop the trade of illicit drugs in the Northwest Territories today. We have the Crime Stoppers program, as well, and people can anonymously, if they are aware of illegal activity in their community, a 1-800 number to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for his question. Certainly, the prevalence of drugs in the Northwest Territories is something that is a very serious concern for us. We handle the enforcement of the drug trade through the RCMP “G” Division. They do an excellent job for us in trying to combat the amount of drugs that enter the territory. We’ve had some very high profile drug busts here in Yellowknife recently and also in Hay River. We also have the canine unit that helps in that regard as well. I know the RCMP work on a multijurisdictional approach because the drugs have to come from...

The Member knows full well that we are going to be mirroring federal legislation, the Oil and Gas Operations Act as well as the Petroleum Resources Act. Those pieces of legislation will guide us. For the Member to make assertions that there will be no public hearings, that we are going to throw those to the wayside, things are going to continue to happen here in the Northwest Territories. We will be able to regulate this industry here in the Northwest Territories. We will be able to build a capacity here at home to enable us to do that. The plain fact is that this change will provide for a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We could have looked at an option that would have left us with the National Energy Board regulating onshore oil and gas activity in the NWT. It was felt that we could look at an integrated resource management approach here in the NWT which would allow us to build the capacity here in the Northwest Territories to regulate the industry ourselves. We wouldn’t be regulated from Ottawa or Calgary. We could build that capacity here at home. We believe we can do that and do it correctly. We’ve got the Land Use and Sustainability Framework. We’ve got the Water Stewardship...

I will go back to the department and we’ll get a detailed response for the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have moved forward with working with the Healing Drum Society piloting a new program called Wek’eahkaa. We hope to see funding flow for that program in the amount of $292,000 in ’14-15. In addition to that, we also have $105,000 that goes to the YWCA here in Yellowknife.

The success of the first readiness session we had in Norman Wells and the community meetings that we’ve had this past year were very successful in letting folks know what was happening in the coming year. I’ve had discussions with the Member and with the department and we certainly will try to move forward with a readiness session sometime this year, and we will also get that information on the training initiative, as well, and continue to work with folks in the Sahtu to ensure that there’s adequate training for people that want to take that training.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d have to check with officials at the department and at ECE to find out the status of that work. Thank you.

Oil and gas projects here in the Northwest Territories will, again, continue to be subject to environmental regulation under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, which will continue to require public hearings in some circumstances. It’s simply wrong to make an assertion that because of devolution, requirements for public hearings are going to change. That’s not the case. This is going to be our best effort put forward to regulate this industry in the Northwest Territories, build a capacity here at home, and with an integrated approach to resource management in the NWT we believe we...

That would be the chief safety officer.