Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I joined the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and colleagues in a recent tour of the fracking fields of Saskatchewan and North Dakota. We were joined by leaders from the Sahtu, as well as ITI and ENR staff. We learned a lot and I am pleased that there is much interest from the public and the media in hearing our impressions.

I was invited, this past weekend, to speak to a local chapter of the Council of Canadians and a group of concerned citizens during an organized global day event of protest against fracking. Titled “Global Frack-Down,” the event called for...

Thank you. My understanding is that this is happening based on the substantiation sheet. Okay, that will help focus my attention that it should happen and I’d like the Minister to get going with that. Obviously, a substantial school, a gymnasium again that was shrugged off on to the community and it’s clearly in desperate need of replacement in a community that doesn’t have the capacity for that. So I’d ask the Minister to go after that and get that back on the books for the establishment of a good school for these kids. I mean, again, immediate occupation of that school at capacity and they...

In terms of the Kaw Tay Whee School in Detah, what are the standards for a gymnasium for a school like that and is there any plan to put such a facility in place? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, I just want to emphasize here my complete chagrin in not having significant educational infrastructure projects profiled here, especially given the deferred investments in this area and the great need that the Members have been profiling for the last seven years that I know of.

There is also the area of early childhood development, of course. Apparently we are just putting all of these things on the backburner. I think Ms. Bisaro has profiled a number of things that were on the 20-year plan just a few months ago and are missing now in action. Maybe I could just ask...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be supporting this motion and I appreciate the mover and seconder for bringing this motion forward.

A massive amount of work has been done for a long period of time and is represented and boiled down in this report. The report says, “We have concluded, as a review board, that there are major significant impacts from this project.” They further concluded, not surprisingly, that there are major and significant public concerns, and they have, I would say, done a pretty good job of recommending measures to address those significant concerns and impacts.

What we have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I really do appreciate that the people of the Sahtu and the people of the Northwest Territories need to be better informed about fracking. We need to consider the economic, social and environmental benefits very carefully.

When will the people of the Sahtu and NWT have an opportunity to hear about the social and environmental impacts and make informed decisions about what is best for their communities? Will the Minister sponsor a public forum on fracking that will include balanced information on both the positive and negative potential impacts? Mahsi.

Thanks to the Minister for that response. The Indian Resource Council, of course, is a group that represents oil-producing First Nations. It is not likely that we will get a balanced view from them either. I know that ConocoPhillips is a partner in presenting these workshops, according to the Minister’s information.

Fracking will have wide-ranging impacts in the Northwest Territories, but I totally agree that it is important for the people of the Sahtu to learn more about what is being planned for their region. It is their land and communities that will be most affected, but in looking at the...

Though one-sided, many people spoke candidly, saying look out, there is a freight train barrelling down on us. They have been overwhelmed with the demands of fracking put on local infrastructure and they said you must get prepared ahead of time. This means hundreds of millions of dollars for the installation of pipelines for oil, for gas, to supply fresh water and to take away the dirty water, a permanent network of roads, housing for big influxes of workers, and so on.

I am doing a little mini-series on fracking, so I will be continuing on this subject. As I said, we learned a lot and I will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I side with my colleague Ms. Bisaro in this discussion. As the Speaker knows, our Members’ conduct also says we will promote the equality of all our people, distribute resources fairly and justly, and to the public I owe the responsibility to work for the well-being of all residents of the Northwest Territories.

The Member has inferred that resources are unfairly distributed and that Yellowknife has over-benefitted. Now, he presented no data to back that up. There have been some summaries done, and I am willing to state that, in fact, on a per capita basis, there...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think this is a good discussion. I would like to see more of this sort of discussion so we can… This has been something that has been bubbling along for a while, but meanwhile the Yellowknife Campus has been festering with overuse. I appreciate Mr. Moses bringing this to the table. I do agree with his point that we need to come up with a good vision of the role for each of the campuses. I think I have detected really good support. I personally very much support first-class facilities in our other campuses outside Yellowknife. We have put them in place there even to...