Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, we have committed to doing a review of the 27 pieces of legislation that were mirrored by this government. We have posted on our website and there have been approximately 500 hits on the website. A number of people have been accessing various pieces of legislation, but as of this date there have been no substantive questions or expressions of any concern of any of the legislation on the website.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable David Ramsay will be absent from the House today and tomorrow to attend the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers responsible for Justice and Public Safety meeting in Banff, Alberta. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

When you talk to the industry where bids were accepted for work in the Sahtu that have decided to work elsewhere, when we talked to the industry, they indicated they were collecting baseline information. So if they ever decide to come back north, they will have necessary baseline information that will reflect the best practices of drilling and that before they actually do the drilling, in this case we’re looking at trying to determine the size of the oil and gas reserves that are there, that they will have all the necessary information when and if they do decide to come back. Right now there...

In the Northwest Territories we are working on fracking regulations which will reflect best practices of the industry. We’ve also inherited guidelines from the National Energy Board which deals with hydraulic fracking. In the Northwest Territories’ regulatory system, the appropriate land and water board conducts preliminary screening and our government respects the decisions of the land and water boards. Also, we continue to assess how we best use our new authorities in the Northwest Territories.

I’m very confident that when the draft regulations come out, it will be discussed widely and we...

The website update and advertising campaign began on May 20, 2014. It was highlighted in the sessional statement of May 28th. This was followed by a news release on May 29th and a very extensive advertising campaign in northern papers. We are planning to start another round of advertising and it’s scheduled to start in early November. As usual and as always, we work very closely with committee on all of these things.

What was outlined and discussed with committee was that we would put this legislation on the website and at the appropriate time we would gather all of the feedback and issues and concerns that were raised and that we would report back to committee with the intention that where there were areas of concern, we would deal with the specific legislation.

Just to be more specific, there have been 1,709 legislation review website views, 537 of those were on the pages that list the new legislation. Specific sites that were visited were the Oil and Gas Operations Act and the Petroleum Resources Act...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a constituent of Yellowknife South, Gayla Thunstrom, the first vice-president of the Union of Northern Workers; and also Jack Bourassa, regional executive vice-president north with the Public Service Alliance of Canada. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker. I would like to welcome all Members back for the resumption of the Fifth Session of the 17th Legislative Assembly.

Last month the Government of the Northwest Territories announced that it would cover the expected $20 million in increased operating costs that the Northwest Territories Power Corporation faces due to extremely low water levels in the Snare Hydro system.

Our government took this extraordinary step because we are serious about addressing the high cost of living people in the Northwest Territories face. Without this decision, the added cost of using diesel to supplement...

Mr. Speaker, one of the aims of devolution was giving Northwest Territories residents the powers and authorities they need to turn northern potential into prosperity for themselves and the country.

I have said many times that the North is the future of Canada and that our potential is bright. We have a strong resource base that includes diamonds, gold, tungsten, rare earth metals and other minerals. We have world-class oil and gas reserves that stretch from the Beaufort-Delta through the Sahtu and down into the Deh Cho. We have untapped hydro potential that could provide clean, affordable...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Michael Miltenberger will be absent from the House today to meet with the federal Minister Joe Oliver in Toronto. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.