Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 7, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2014-2015, be read for the second time.

This bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m the responsible Minister in this instance, and that responsibility is mine.

Mr. Speaker I seek unanimous consent to proceed with first reading of Bill 7, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2014-2015.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you. What I am satisfied with is that we have a process under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, with the boards, with the environmental assessments that were done, the Sahtu Land and Water Board, with the NEB that addressed the issues, that we have a piece of legislation that pre-dates those acts. It does not have the ability to overrule federal legislation just from a legal point of view, and even if it did, I don’t believe that would be a requirement because I don’t think there are the concerns raised by the Members. I think it’s been covered by the NEB, by their document...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Member for the motion and the comments of those that have spoken to the motion. It is a very critical issue, it’s a big initiative and we’ve been listening carefully, there are notes being taken and we have an obligation to provide a response in 120 days. We want the same type of things for our children in the system. Now we’re debating the best way to get there.

So, I appreciate the comments and, as this is direction to Cabinet, we will be abstaining. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe so, especially based on the edifying comments and statements I’ve listened to the Member make in this House over the last couple of weeks about the issue of fracking, the trips and some of the particulars as it relates to those particular practices. Thank you.

What we were talking about in the House today, as I just indicated, was I was responding to questions related to the letter that has been posted and written to Mr. Spence, and that is the extent.

At this juncture, I was speaking to the contents of the letter that was written to Mr. Spence and signed off by both governments.

We’re prepared to, and want to, engage to resolve this issue. The letter is very positive about what we still see as the potential for the role of an oversight group when it comes to advice and recommendations as opposed to final say and vetoes. So we have to resolve that issue. It’s a very fundamental one, but there’s still a lot of good work that can be done. Thank you.

As MLA, I think the Member would be very hard to comfort on this issue. It’s clear she wants total acceptance of the report, and no questions asked, cost is not an issue, those types of things don’t matter and somehow that report should be taken totally as is because a lot of people provided their recommendations. They did a lot of work. We appreciate the work, we’re looking at the work and using a lot of the recommendations, but no responsible government would be wise just to take things at face value without taking a look at them, especially when we’ve invested hundreds of millions of...