Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table a press release, entitled “New Study Demonstrates Alberta Failing to Enforce Environmental Legislation,” which includes highlights from the report Environmental Incidents in Northeastern Alberta’s Bitumen Sands Region, 1996-2012.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Everything is in the definitions, of course, so I guess I would ask, what does coordination mean to the Minister. Does that mean he will just make sure the formatting is the same and that the departments’ voice will be clearly heard and they will be contributing directly into the decision-making? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In terms of emergency management, I see a bump-up in the grants and contributions of a couple hundred thousand, and I know the Minister referenced another $350,000. What is the Minister aiming at here? One of the things that has come up in terms of community management planning is the increase and the expectation of further increases of the transportation of toxic and explosive materials through our communities associated with the fracking activity in the Sahtu as well as along our highways and rivers and lakes and so on. I know the Minister is familiar with what’s...

I see contributions for Aboriginal groups for consultation and supportive decisions on disposition of lands and again for Aboriginal groups in North Slave and South Slave regions supportive land use planning processes. Obviously, we need to be consulting with other people that are not Aboriginal or don’t have Aboriginal treaty rights. Where is the budget to support consultation in those areas? Thank you.

It would be interesting to know who that person reports to, the chief safety officer. As our current regulator of oil and gas, the NEB includes consideration of the environment in their assessments. In addition to the land and water permits each project requires, the NEB also considers the potential cleanup liability created by a particular project.

As of April 1st, who will be responsible for assessing cleanup liabilities? Will it be just the land and water boards or will ITI have a role?

Thanks, Mr. Chair, just briefly. How long is the agreement typically for the gas tax that we’re negotiating? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a follow-up. I think the Minister is well prepared for this question on the fire marshal’s office expenditures dropping this year significantly from ’13-14 to ’14-15.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I did look back at the organizational chart here, and again, I’d say there’s room for some efficiencies. I’m a big proponent of sustainably, I’m sure the Minister knows, and the land use planning, but just in terms of the use of our positions, I’m a bit perplexed here, although you can subtly define the differences between them. I bet the coordination, I bet the results would be a lot better if you combine them in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, but I’ll leave that to the Minister. I’ll throw that out there as maybe that’s something more that we can chat about...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up on the new role that ITI will be assuming as the NWT oil and gas regulator, so my questions are for the Minister of ITI. The Premier and the Minister have said in the House that several options were considered before choosing ITI as our regulator. Could the Minister summarize what those other options were and what were the advantages and disadvantages of each option?

Thanks to the Minister. That sounds good. This is my last question on these pages. The New Deal taxation revenue program, I just don’t recall what that’s about. If I can just get a quick refresher on what that fund is all about.