Bob Bromley

Could we likely add the ongoing work with the Avens Seniors as a possible facility that we could put on the books at some point soon with that?

Thanks to the Minister for that information. Could I get the Minister to commit to bringing forward a strategy for meeting those needs over the long term – and specifically I’m talking about infrastructure needs – to committee once he’s got the numbers in a few weeks and has the opportunity to develop such a plan?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome to the Minister and staff here. I wanted to ask about, in a general sense, the long-term sense, assisted-living facilities, extended-care facilities across the Northwest Territories, and I believe it was the projections of the Avens Seniors’ Society that estimated an equal or greater than tripling of seniors needing care in the next 15 years. I’m wondering: Is that consistent with the Minister’s knowledge, and further to that, just to get the questions in here, what is our strategy for addressing the need, whatever the Minister’s estimate of it is, and are we on...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will look forward to those numbers. Yesterday the Minister of ENR stated in our House that the government and ENR have already decided we can manage the risk from fracking. We know that increasing greenhouse gas emissions is against all the best possible scientific advice we can have. We know the impacts of climate change are already having soaring costs to the people of the NWT and the planet.

If Sahtu oil is proven, how does the Minister propose to manage the risks caused by fracking a very large but unknown amount of fossil fuels so they can be burned and the...

That was all I had, Mr. Chair. I appreciate those comments.

I’m glad the Minister agrees with competing needs. That’s interesting. We are spending, of course, less and less each year on this issue. Could the Minister of Environment confirm that this government understands that greenhouse emissions are created when we burn fossil fuels like oil and gas, and if the oil and gas is left in the ground, they cannot create greenhouse gas emissions? Mahsi.

Thanks to the Minister for that. I know the Minister is aware of the situation. Maybe getting away from infrastructure a little bit, so cack me if you must, Mr. Chair, but what we’re trying to do I think here is address the problem as much as possible through some infrastructure improvements. Is that going to do it, or are there other things that are needed that will change the behaviour of the users of the park parking lot?

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to recognize a Lifeguard for Lodune, Kimberly Galbaransingh. Welcome, Kimberly. I would also, as always, like to recognize Tony Whitford, our illustrious man of many hats. I would also like to recognize Vanessa Rankin and all of the social students who are here today. Mahsi.

Thanks for that additional information. I’m sure Mr. Heath has a target date, but I can assure him that that target date for me, over the last seven years, there’s been quite a change in starting dates. Most recently was that we would be hearing the cost estimate for this project laid out in detail in September and here we are almost to November. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the next few years, the people of the Sahtu and the people of the Northwest Territories will have to make a decision: Do we frack our land or not?

Today companies are telling us we can make lots of money fracking the land and selling the oil that comes out, but unlike the past, we can also do our own research now and we can understand that this is dangerous.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just released its latest report. It repeats what we already knew from the last report in 2007, and the one before that, 2001, only now with greater certainty...