Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 75(5) to have Bill 44, Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act, and Bill 47, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, moved into Committee of the Whole for consideration later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mentioned in my Member’s statement the shale potential in the Inuvialuit, Gwich’in, the Sahtu region, and the Laird Basin. Should hydraulic fracturing get the green light and go ahead? Does the government foresee or has created or are they currently in existence of wastewater disposal sites, and if so, how many?

I thank the Minister for the update on some of the information around the transboundary water agreement. What the Minister did say was the flow from Alberta down to the Northwest Territories, and that becomes a concern, as well, in terms of monitoring. It becomes a concern with wastewater and also becomes a concern with some of the fracking chemicals that might, if possible, if there’s a chance that it does get leaked into the water system and then comes down here.

I want to ask the Minister, in one of our areas where we talked about the four new regulations that we got with fracking, one of...

There was also concern of monitoring, and as I also mentioned, the wastewater disposal sites that we have in the Northwest Territories, do we even have any, which got me thinking about our transboundary water agreements that we have with Alberta and BC. If Alberta and BC are doing hydraulic fracturing and they’re lowering their water levels, can that have an impact here in the Northwest Territories? Last summer we just witnessed the lowest water levels on record here in the Northwest Territories. If we do go ahead and proceed with hydraulic fracturing, how much of that water is going to be...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to express my appreciation for the work that was done. I think it was great that both the department and the community did reach out to a number of stakeholders, and we did get a lot of submissions coming in even before we went on our little road trip there. As I mentioned, we had nine communities and got a lot of really good feedback. I just wanted to mention there, as well, that I think this is the first time that a committee has taken two significant bills that are going to affect the way that we do our business in the Northwest Territories on the road...

Just another quick question for clarity. These five positions we are looking at locating them, has there been any discussion or any work being done to look at putting these five positions out into the regional centres? We have TeleHealth. We have the fibre optic one coming down. There are better ways of communicating. If we are looking at making communication based on a lot of these new responsibilities that we have, why can’t we do that in the regions and get our regional residents more updated and educated and aware of what our responsibilities are, rather than having to do it through...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just like to thank the Minister for bringing the bill forward, the Mental Health Act. As he knows, the Mental Health Act hasn’t had any significant changes to it since 1985. Throughout my term as an MLA, a lot of our issues that we see and deal with, and as chair of the Committee on Social Programs, a lot of issues that we deal with, whether it’s in justice, education, health, housing, and it could go on and on, all comes down to an underlying fact and that deals with mental health.

I know that residents of the Northwest Territories will be very happy to hear...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Standing Committee on Social Programs thanks all stakeholders who provided written submissions on Bill 44 or attended public meetings.

The committee advises that it supports Bill 44 as amended and reprinted and presents it for consideration to Committee of the Whole.

I seek unanimous consent to return to item number 12 on the Order Paper, reports of standing and special committees. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have the honour of speaking about a great Northerner and a great human being. George Doolittle was born on August 11, 1944, in Edmonton, Alberta, to Jane and George Doolittle Sr. He attended Colorado Springs College for a year and then went to the University of Alberta to pursue engineering. However, George decided to seek adventure after a year of engineering. He travelled to several American and Canadian cities before settling in Inuvik, where he acquired a stationary engineer certificate.

George met Violet in Norman Wells in the fall of 1965. They fell in love...