Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of a fracking moratorium pending a comprehensive regional review.

The petition contains 1,142 signatures of Northwest Territories residents and the petitioners request that the Government of the Northwest Territories put a moratorium on horizontal hydraulic fracturing until a comprehensive, transparent and public review of the cumulative environmental, social and economic risks and benefits of the process is completed under Part 5.1 of the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act and the NWT public clearly...

It’s of great concern if the Minister hasn’t seen the science on climate change. I think everybody in the world should see it, but probably not nearly as much as this Minister should.

Would the Minister commit to becoming intimately familiar with the scientific conclusions on climate change? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also support our goals and vision totally. We are now talking about the interpretation of those. I would note that clearly, for a million dollars of investment, the jobs are there for renewable energy far and beyond, half an order of magnitude beyond oil and gas.

We are fortunate in having alternatives to fossil fuel extraction and its form of tremendous renewable energy options in every community. The technology is here now and getting better by the day. The United States is planning a complete switch to renewable energy in the next 30 years.

My question: What...

I take it that’s a no to the moratorium. We all know that the people called for a halt to economic analysis of the last application, yet the government approved it, despite having the power to call for that environmental review.

Of more than 400 peer reviewed publications on the impacts of shale gas development, 75 percent of which we published in 2013, 96 percent indicate adverse health outcomes, 92 percent indicate elevated air pollution and 73 percent warn of water pollution because of fracking. Tight oil fracking starts after that, so the research is behind, but it’s coming out completely...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Always a great pleasure to welcome constituent Tony Whitford, honourary table officer extraordinaire and brings a special energy to the House, as I think we all agree. Great to see you, Tony.

I would also like to recognize a few people in the gallery who were participating in a demonstration outside the House today passing messages on to the House. My colleague has already mentioned Sheila Karkagie. Also, Keira Kolson and Marie Speakman, I believe, was in there, as well, and there may well be others in the House that were part of that. I appreciated hearing from the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When asked what his secret to success was, Wayne Gretzky replied that most players go for where the puck is while he goes for where the puck is going to be. I know our Premier and ITI Minister are hockey players, and they’re good ones. If we want to be stars like the Great One, we need to recognize that oil and gas may be where the puck is at currently, but renewable energy is where the puck will be by the time we get there. Let’s apply this insight to the NWT economic development energy strategy and listen to the goal buzzer shriek with joy.

It’s obvious that the days...

So, the new one that we read about in the paper was a real thing in the same spot. The temporary repairs weren’t sufficient. Is that what I’m hearing? Thank you.

Thanks for that correction. So the Yellowknife Airport isn’t a new situation. Is that also, do we know, a permafrost thing? It sounds like it is a bigger deal than the Inuvik one. Thank you.

Again, Mr. Chair, we’re doing all these things and they’re not working. Is there not a lesson to be learned there? I mean, we hear over and over again that people want real supports, not big money going to big multinational companies and subsidies and $300 million highways, you know, that are going to cost us to try and maintain. People have real needs right now, and if we were delivering those properly, we’d be retaining people, we’d be giving them the quality of life that will make them want to be here and we will be attracting those skills. So, without that reasoning laid out in a strategy...

Again, not something I can support. We have extreme unemployment in parts of the Northwest Territories, and we’re travelling, there are international programs here and so on, and I’m all for immigration, but my understanding is there’s a lot of people trying to get here, and I don’t see how we’re spending over $300,000 on this when we have already so many people who, with some training, could start to fill in these sorts of things. We’ve got the students graduating. The schools in Yellowknife are some of the best in the country, so we know we’re producing capable people. What are we not doing...