Bob Bromley

Mr. Speaker, when you are on a roll, go for it. Will the Minister work with his colleague in Industry to, in fact, take our regional leadership to ensure they visit active frack sites as well as jurisdictions that have banned fracking, for whatever reason, to learn about those reasons and concerns and also to visit with Aboriginal people wherever they have experience with fracking, such as northeast BC? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up with my questions to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources on some of the fracking regulations that we’re doing. I expressed an interest in having people visit actual frack sites. I am wondering, first of all, has the Minister ever visited a frack site where, in fact, a horizontal frack was actually underway. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, thanks again to the Minister. Some jurisdictions have banned fracking. That isn’t something they do lightly, so we need to understand the serious concerns that led to this.

As I mentioned, our so-called EDI fracking tour didn’t include a visit to even one fracking site. As part of this information gathering, will the ENR Minister work with the Industry Minister to ensure the promised southern tour of regional leaders includes a visit to a no-fracking jurisdiction and to meet with the Aboriginal leadership with extensive fracking experience in northeastern BC? Thank you.

Thanks for that comment. I hope the Minister does use the fastest way to get that information out there. These days it’s possible.

My last question has to do with bison, Mr. Chair. I know we’ve gone through, again, some serious kafuffles with the bison herd, the Mackenzie Bison herd. I know at one point we had opened harvest up to those with Aboriginal and treaty rights to shoot cows and calves and whatever they wanted along the road and so on, or even off the road, shortly before we had the anthrax issue and now we’ve got a decimated herd. I don’t believe there were any extraordinary harvest...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks for the Minister’s comments. I hope that the boards are aware of the science that’s available on what is harvestable for the caribou in a conservative way, and that their decisions are based on that best information and, in fact, that they can be encouraged to make timely decisions when the evidence is clear.

I would like to ask a question with regard to the Wildlife Act. I know we’re still working at it and I’m hoping that it gets tabled soon. I do appreciate the Minister’s support. I believe he formed a committee he’s calling SWAAG, I believe it’s the Stakeholders...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to start with the Bathurst herd of caribou. As we all know, they have essentially been closed for just about three years. With the residential harvest being well below a few hundred for several years before that, I know many harvesters that quit hunting three or four years before the closure, as did I. Yet there’s been essentially no recovery and certainly not in the reproductive potential of this herd where there’s been no change in the number of females. I’m wondering if the Minister knows why and what additional measures are being taken this year to address this...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee defer further consideration of the department summary for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ main estimates, 2013-2014, on page 13-7 at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks for the comments and commitments from the Minister there. Obviously there are some real linkages with Municipal and Community Affairs here. The savings in landfill costs is in the $100,000 range. Organics, I believe, are often in the order of 25 or greater percent of the waste stream. Here is another opportunity for cooperation: the possible examination of helping communities set up organics drop-off points at the landfills.

Will the Minister commit to gathering the information I’ve requested from his staff and then consulting with the MACA Minister on possible opportunities and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I really just have one general comment for this sort of activity. It is about six or eight pages long. I did a little survey and found that the majority of projects we’ve listed with the federal government are ending or dropping significantly in funding. There are zero new programs planned. Seven of them are being maintained. There are about 16 or 18 of these. One is actually increasing in funding, but zero new programs and it just seems like, looking at the numbers, we typically do add programs. I’m wondering, will we be entering into new agreements later in the fiscal...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions for the Minister of ITI. In my statement I talked about the recognition success that Yellowknife has achieved on composting in partnership with Ecology North. While a project such as the Yellowknife central composting facility may be beyond the scale of our smaller communities, there are valuable lessons to be learned here. One Ecology North staff active in this project is from Hay River. Ecology North has been a prime mover in the local community garden effort. I’d like to ask the Minister if he can tell...