Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Chair, I certainly appreciate the response back from the Minister on the runways. I specifically want to talk to Deline in regards to their willingness and their partnership, even though for the department, maybe for the government it seems like a small community. How do we erase the $4.5 million? Well, that is their business. Let them do it. They have been in business for long enough. Give them the ability. Give them the credence and the faith that they could come up with money. It’s for them to decide. All we do is lend our hand in a partnership and see what they can do. It might take...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask the Minister here on infrastructure and going forward in planning studies. The hub of the Sahtu airport is Norman Wells. With the increase of traffic, I believe Norman Wells is the second busiest airport in the North here. With the ranking so high – other than, of course, Yellowknife being the highest – does the Norman Wells Airport have the required support resources in that airport to sustain itself and to be prepared to deal with more traffic as the oil and gas systems are going forward in regard to the oil and gas exploration?

There are other airports in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to reiterate the pressing needs…

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was in Norman Wells over the weekend and I know that our people want to work. We are the ones on our land in the Sahtu. We’ll make that decision on frack or no frack.

Now, I just want to ask the Minister, regarding this checklist, is he looking at something this winter on the Mackenzie Valley winter road with the state of our winter roads. They’re going to be hauling out some chemicals on that winter road. Is the Minister going to look at some type of funding that would make sure that it will be safe so that these trucks can drive out and we’ll know that for sure there...

My earlier comments in my Member’s statement talked about the Sahtu being on the verge of the next energy driver in Canada. I want to say to the Minister, with this type of potential in the Sahtu, is the Minister working with his colleagues with regard to preparing the Sahtu to take on this initiative, that things are in place for training, for child care, for education and for the environment, for all these things that we can say yes, we feel comfortable that everything has been encompassed, that we can go ahead to the next stage in hydraulic fracking. Is that a project that he’s willing to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to acknowledge well-known youth Andy Carpenter Jr., who passed away suddenly in Norman Wells. People remember him as a youth who was easily liked and made everyone smile. He was a youth who was kind-hearted and always had a positive attitude towards everybody in life. He enjoyed hunting and was a strong athletic motivator.

We will always remember Andy in our hearts, especially by his parents, family and friends. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee strongly recommends that the government take immediate action to identify appropriate and ongoing levels of funding to support the development and expansion of the Mackenzie Valley winter road system beginning the fiscal year 2014-2015.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My questions to Minister Ramsay are on the planning of the infrastructure of the Mackenzie Valley winter road. It is in regard to the amount of traffic that could be there this coming winter. With the amount that we’ve seen or heard of last year, 2,200 trucks coming up from Wrigley to Tulita and then up to Norman Wells and across to the oilfields, I want to state that I was somewhat disappointed when I read the capital infrastructure and didn’t see any type of infrastructure to protect the people and the safety. There’s going to be a lot of trucks on that road and some of...

Mr. Speaker, I certainly appreciate the Members around this table here talking about hydraulic fracking in the Sahtu region. When I was in the Sahtu over the weekend, people in the Sahtu will determine if they will go ahead with hydraulic fracking or not. The people in the Sahtu will decide just what type of scale it will be at.

I want to follow up with a question from my colleague in terms of public engagement in hydraulic fracking for the people of the Sahtu on environmental, social and economics. Would the Minister work with Members on this side in regards to putting on a government public...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment on the hydraulic fracturing in the Sahtu.

We have certainly heard Members from this side talk about going into the Bakken and seeing the activity. In North Dakota there were guns blazing toward hydraulic fracturing, so I want to ask the Minister in regards to what we saw in southeastern Saskatchewan and in North Dakota. What are some of the big differences between what is happening there and what potentially could happen in the Sahtu in regards to the jurisdictions and regulations?