Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to follow up quickly with a couple of questions about our CETA negotiations. I learned that we are trying to protect our communities, or at least stay in touch with them, and that there are procurement thresholds.

The numbers I’ve seen, and I’m not privy to all this information at all, but in fact would allow most of our infrastructure projects to be susceptible to getting through these agreements. I think partly because our infrastructure is so expensive, and this obviously is a concern. So I’d be wanting to know what the ministry is doing to protect our local...

That’s essentially baloney. We know, we read the papers, we listen to the radio, we watch the news on television, we watch the oil bubbling up because of this regulator’s failures in northern Alberta more and more and more daily without a resolution. We are not talking about a responsible… Around for years? This agency has undergone three name changes, I think, in the last three years. It’s an industry-led regulator. That is not what the people of the Northwest Territories are looking for, thank you very much. Let’s go on record here. Let’s use evidence-based decision-making for a change.

I had...

Thank you. Everything sounds copacetic, but that’s not the message I’m getting. I’m wondering if the Minister would get on the phone as soon as we’re done here.

The Yellowknives Dene First Nation has been cooperating with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources on recording the number of caribou they have harvested. Since 2010 the basis of this partnership has been an interim harvest agreement initially for two years and then extended for a year. Has the department signed an extension to this agreement for this year and, if not, why not? Mahsi.

I guess there’s a couple of things that I am concerned about here that I hope will be accounted for in the work on the Agriculture Policy. The first is, in fact, the lion’s share of Growing Forward I money actually went to Take a Kid Harvesting and it had really almost nothing to do with agriculture.

That is stealing from the intent of this fund, in my mind. I would ask that the Minister examine that closely because I know it’s amongst the people interested in developing their agricultural businesses and so on. This is a stretch. They regard this as a major stretch. In fact, somehow it is...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m not quite sure where to start here. Just on the petroleum resources office, I’m perplexed why we have two divisions here. You end up having a lot more costs because you’ve got to have directors and all this sort of stuff. These are obviously petroleum offices and I don’t have a problem with them being in two locations, but I just think there are some efficiencies that could be had there.

Maybe while I’m at it, I see petroleum resources also oversees the management of the Environmental Studies Research Fund. This is the fox in the henhouse, obviously. ENR should...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Chief Edward Sangris of the Yellowknives First Nation, Detah. I know he’s got a very busy schedule, so it’s great to see him in the House today.

I had the opportunity to meet Itai Katz from Tsiigehtchic just before session here. That was the first time I’d met him. I welcome him to the House. Of course, he’s the spouse of the famous Alistine Andre. I’d like to recognize her. Mahsi.

Thanks to the Minister for his response to that. Would he commit to keeping committee apprised on this?

I asked because sitting on the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure, and I think it’s okay to speak about what we don’t know in those committees, I have not seen any briefing whatsoever on what’s going on with this 34 days before its implementation, and there’s been a huge about-face from the last time we were given a briefing. I have serious concerns about costs here.

The people aren’t here. The structure is not here. Is the budget here in this document?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One thing I meant to get to was on the sport hunt outfitter marketing support. I, and I know other Members, have met with the outfitters in this area and they’re basically edging on bankruptcy because of the loss of caribou. There was some hope that the herd would recover in time to rescue these businesses, and some of them have basically put their lifetime’s worth of savings and investments into the business. It’s now looking like this is not feasible within the timescale that would allow them to recover anything.

Would the Minister be willing to work with these few...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to ask: I don’t see in the organizational chart, which is at the beginning of the document here, where the regulator is. I understand the Minister is taking on the regulator role from the NEB and I didn’t see a recognition of that office in the personnel summary either. I don’t know whether it’s in corporate management, and I’d be happy to ask my questions on that wherever it’s appropriate, but I thought I would bring it up at my first general opportunity here. Thank you.