Michael Miltenberger

No, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I will commit to work with the Minister of ITI. I can appreciate the Member’s concern about meeting with the Aboriginal governments and going to an actual fracking site. I would think we could probably gather the information about those jurisdictions that have decided to go ahead with fracking, by looking at what is available and having those conversations. But we will do a full review of all those particular positions as it pertains to fracking. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; this is an important issue. It’s a practice that we need to look at carefully. We’ve already invested considerable time and effort. We intend to come forward by this coming spring, early fall at the latest, with some guidelines built on best practices. We’ve had some very interesting meetings with the National Energy Board, as well, who’s going to be working in conjunction with us, especially at post-devolution, about the way to manage our way through this.

The Member raises a lot of issues that we are working to address and we will be sharing, of...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled Public Accounts 2011-2012, Section I and Section II. Thank you.

I want to assure the Member again that I am very aware that I am a Minister for the territorial government representing all Northerners and we are charged with representing everybody. In this case, we have been working to do that, recognizing the circumstances.

I’d point out, in the South Slave, for example, we are taking the steps to reinstitute the bison harvest for non-Aboriginal people and we have other species where there are still tags available for moose and such. So when conservation issues come to bear and become a priority, we take the decisions necessary, hard as though they may be...

The intent is to use the fastest means we have available, electronically probably, to get the information disseminated. Like I indicated, we’re sending out the work today with a plan to sit down I think mid-week or so next week to have a meeting with the SWAAG folks. So those are the timelines, keeping our eye on the calendar where we want to introduce this for first and second reading early in March so we can get it into the legislative process for committee before this session is concluded. Thank you.

I should also just reiterate that we also committed in this House, I think last week, to take a look at the milk cartons as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We, the government, myself as Minister, my obligation is to all Northerners, recognizing our unique circumstances, structures and processes, which is why we have initiated the process to go to the boards to ask and suggest that there is now enough numbers that we know, and that there’s a need to reconsider and relook at the other restricted harvests, the resident harvests as a first step. I’ve indicated if the discussions are such that it leads to not only the resident harvest, but the suggestion that we can sustain at least for the outfitters in that area, that we’d...

The Greenhouse Gas Strategy is a broad framework strategy and I’d point out that we have invested millions in developing biomass first, the market, and now the industry. We are breaking good new ground on how we do solar. We’re looking at some major, major hydro initiatives with transmission, generation over the next five to 10 years that we want to finalize and come out with.

If you put all of those together, those are part of the Greenhouse Gas Strategy. The Greenhouse Gas Strategy is not sitting out there separate by itself. We’ve done all of these subsidiary strategies that allow us to meet...

We are intending to go back this spring to see if we can harden up the estimates of the Bluenose-East. At this point we have to work with the processes that are there. We have to err on the side of not overdoing the harvest.

The folks, the various boards and ourselves will look at all of the information that we currently have. In fact, we are going back in the spring to try and harden up those numbers. Collectively, we’ll work with the various boards to come up with their best recommendations and we’ll look at that. We can’t just manufacture herd numbers. They are what the science tells us, the...