Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Madam Chair. A couple of points I want to relay to the Minister. I do appreciate the need and the foresight to look at the seniors needs in Fort Good Hope. The Minister has responded by putting a seniors unit there for the people. I understand from the elders in Fort Good Hope that they appreciate they’re going to get a seniors duplex. They’re looking forward to working with the Housing Corporation.

I do want to say, in the seniors duplex, if there is a possibility of looking at an alternative to the heating facility, I know you have a solar panel in the numbers here, Madam Chair. I...

Thank you. As part of devolution and of devolving powers to the Northwest Territories, will some of the discussion look at the possibility of the Northwest Territories having its own type of a National Energy Board regulator, legislation, something that would be built and be worked on by the northern people and enforced by the northern people?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of ITI about the process of devolution, the role of the National Energy Board. I know we will have some working relationship to them and I want to know about the oil and gas activity specifically to the hydraulic fracking in the Sahtu, that the National Energy Board will work with us, or actually they’ll be our employees in regard to enforcing the regulations of this drilling program.

Certainly when we were in the east part of the east corner of Saskatchewan, we were actually at a frack site. We were actually in the operation and actually we were fracking. There was no earth shattering water spewing out of the hole. It is actually quite safe. I would like to point to the Minister in terms of having the information out there. Clearly, the facts need to be looked at.

I want to ask the Minister in regards to the employment for our people. In 2010-11 $976,000 was paid to income support clients in the Sahtu. We want to reduce that. How is the Minister going to address the needs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have made my Member’s statement on the hydraulic fracking that potentially is going to happen this year in the Sahtu. The company of ConocoPhillips is going to do two exploration wells. With the recent trip to the Bakken formation and seeing the activity down in North Dakota and southeastern Saskatchewan, it certainly was overwhelming. There you can see the different jurisdictions, the different rules that apply in that area, and so it is like the Wild West, really. Up in the Sahtu we have some provisions and some regulations in place, plus we have some time to do it...

Mr. Chair, the Minister and deputy minister are correct on the issue here. I’m glad to hear that. I would remind the Minister that when there are issues like this, because we were caught off guard when we went to Fort Good Hope… Actually, we drove to the tank farm and we saw this. I wasn’t aware of it until I actually drove to the tank farm. If there is any type of reporting of future fuel spills, I would appreciate being notified by the department.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We came, we saw, we can frack. With the recent tour down to North Dakota and eastern Saskatchewan, I want to thank the Minister for taking us, the leaders, members of the committee, on the exploration of hydraulic fracking in that region.

Hydraulic fracking in the Sahtu promises to secure our energy future if we do it right and responsibly. We are looking at hydraulic fracking as our path to greatness, and anything to do with greatness is a risk. For example, people put men on the moon, and that’s a great risk.

I want to say that our land is rich. For example, just look...

Just one more. I just want to again thank the Minister and thank the government for looking at the alternative heating system. I am very happy, at least for our assets, we’re off the gas and looking at alternative heating for our buildings. Certainly I will be asking later on. I had some discussion with the Minister of ENR in terms of helping the business outside the government’s realm of responsibility, and the private homeownership is still somewhat our responsibility. I don’t know how I can word that. Anyhow, I’m happy that the school will be looking at this project along with the airport...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The comments that I have will focus around the upgrade to the Tulita fuel tank farm. We appreciate it and it’s looking like it’s coming together, and certainly, as I talked to the Minister earlier, and hopefully, once the Tulita tank farm has been completed, I would like to sit with the Minister and review the infrastructure on that project. There were some inquiries earlier when it did begin and there was some, I’m not too sure if it was a misunderstanding or a misinterpretation as to the project itself in regard to some of the community’s expectations and how the...

Just a short comment there, Madam Chair. It’s just with the increase of the infrastructure in the communities. It’s very interesting to hear the Minister talk about further discussions and the formula funding. Of interest, I want to raise the point of type of infrastructure that possibly could be needed in the town of Norman Wells with the increase of the oil and gas activity and that sort of being the regional staging area for the oil and gas companies in regard to the different activity that’s going to happen this year and next year. Is that something that the government is looking at, that...