Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement earlier today I talked about how people in the NWT are concerned about fracking, and my questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

Many people are concerned and for good reasons. I would like to know: Has the Minister heard these concerns? Does he understand that people are concerned or that he least acknowledge that they might be concerned?

As I mentioned, both trucks carrying highly polluted and toxic water rolled over very close to rivers. Fortunately none spilled. The ConocoPhillips site has had to shut down after a worker was seriously injured, and several holding dams and tanks have failed already.

People are concerned and they have every right to be. Many people are talking about a moratorium on fracking, but at a very minimum we need to do environmental assessments on these projects to respond to people’s concerns. Mahsi.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate my colleagues bringing this motion forward and I will be speaking in support of the motion. Unfortunately, the option for 19 does not resolve the issues that I think we’re trying to deal with regarding the redefinition of boundaries.

Certainly, Monfwi is been left grossly under-represented and that gets converted to overrepresented, which is probably not appropriate for a few years. It is one of our fastest growing ridings and obviously they have been in an under-represented state for some time now.

I would say the same about my riding, Madam Chair. Weledeh...

I have a motion, Madam Chair. I move that Bill 18 be amended

in item 11 of the Appendix, by striking out the heading “TU NEDHE – WELEDEH” and substituting “TU NEDHE – WIILIDEH”; and

in item 13 of the Appendix, by striking out “the electoral district of Tu Nedhe – Weledeh” and substituting “the electoral district of Tu Nedhe – Wiilideh”.

Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to present a petition with the matter of referring any further horizontal hydraulic fracturing applications to environmental assessment.

Mr. Speaker, the petition contains 327 handwritten signatures and 463 electronic signatures, for a total of 790 of Northwest Territories residents from at least 24 communities. The petitioners request that the Government of the Northwest Territories exert its authority from the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act to refer any further horizontal hydraulic fracturing applications in the NWT to a full environmental...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll look forward to that on time. The MVRMA gives criteria for determining when a project should be referred for an environmental assessment. I would assume that we use the criteria listed in the legislation, and I’d be happy to give the Minister a reference to that, clause 125, section 1.

I would assume that we use the criteria listed in the legislation, but to be sure, would the Minister commit to making public the criteria this government and its agencies use when deciding whether to refer a project to environmental assessment even if it’s following the legislation?

Thanks to the Minister for that understanding. The petition I’ll be tabling later today, of course, signatures from at least 24 communities including all Sahtu communities and so on. The MVRMA legislation says that any agency of the territorial government can refer a proposed project to a full environmental assessment. We have literally hundreds of agencies, public health agencies, environmental protection agencies and so on, yet none of them referred the previous fracking application for environmental assessment.

Did our government issue a directive or instructions telling all agencies not to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to endorse the Premier’s recognition of these hardworking folks in the gallery today. I know there are many residents from Weledeh, but all of them have played a critical part, I know. I’d also like to recognize, of course, Tony Whitford, a constituent of Weledeh I was very proud of, as we are of all our constituents, a special guy in this House. I would also like to recognize Weledeh residents Kan Baigent and Jacob Baigent. I believe I’ve heard Jacob is interested in the Youth Parliament once we get around to that. Welcome to those Weledeh residents. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There can be no doubt that the people of the Northwest Territories are concerned about fracking. Later today I will table a petition with close to 800 signatures from people in the Sahtu and people across the Northwest Territories expressing concern about fracking and insisting that this government exert its authority to refer future applications to a full environmental statement.

The stated reasons for their concerns include:

Horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is new to the NWT and is clearly controversial. It is banned or under moratorium in many places in...

Madam Chair, before I speak to the motion, this is obviously a pretty complex amendment that is being proposed. I have not seen it before. It greatly, obviously, impacts my riding. I wonder if we might take a few minutes break so I could explore what, in fact, the boundaries are that are being proposed. As you can see from the fine print and the legal jargon, I have no way of knowing where the boundaries are that we’re debating here, and that would certainly help me be able to speak to the motion.