Bob McLeod

Between April and June 2015 the departments of ITI, Environment and Natural Resources, and Lands conducted 14 public engagement sessions in 12 communities throughout the territory hearing input from residents, businesses and industry about the proposed regulations. Residents are also able to submit comments by mail and email. What we heard is there's a lot of education required on this matter and we will certainly engage industry and also as we go out and conduct a review of our Oil and Gas Operations Act and Petroleum Resources Act and develop our Oil and Gas Strategy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government has been conducting research in the 16th and 17th Assemblies and working very closely with the standing committee on economic development. They went and did several site visits where fracking was happening and I think we have gained a much better understanding. Responsible resource development, including oil and gas development, could be a major component of the Northwest Territories economy. We have substantial resources and reserves and it could be essential to creating a prosperous sustainable future for our residents. There is no oil and gas...

Our experience is that workload from Ministers does not significantly decrease when departments are amalgamated, and I'm not saying we're going to do that, but if we do I don’t expect there will be any changes to the number of Cabinet Ministers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What the government announced is that there would be no economic adjustments for excluded employees and this was publicly announced by the Finance Minister in February. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I believe that by participating on the four federal climate change working groups we will have the opportunity to provide for input. We certainly benefit from the interaction with other provinces and territories where we learn what their thoughts on carbon pricing are. Some provinces are looking at not developing an acrosstheboard carbon pricing mechanism. Maybe that's something that would be suited for the Northwest Territories, where you develop criteria where there's no development, where communities have no business opportunities, perhaps you would not introduce carbon pricing but you...

At the Vancouver meetings, the Prime Minister did indicate he was going to work very closely with the 166 communities in the North that are solely dependent on diesel for electrical production. We’re not sure what format that will take. I expect that will be developed during the meetings of the four federal working groups that have been set up to report in October. Certainly, we are very prepared and we are putting into action an approach to develop a new Northwest Territories climate change strategic framework for consideration by the 18th Assembly. As part of that process, we're going to go...

In the 17th Assembly the standing committee on economic development after touring several fracking regions did release a report with quite a number or recommendations. We expect that what we would do is through the review of the Oil and Gas Operations Act and the Petroleum Resources Act we would deal with the issues and we expect the public to raise their concerns with regards to hydraulic fracking.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Inuvialuit SelfGovernment Agreement-in-Principle was signed by the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the Government of the Northwest Territories, and the federal government on July 22 2015 in Inuvik. With the signing of the Inuvialuit SelfGovernment Agreement-in-Principle, the parties are actively working towards the timely conclusion of a final Inuvialuit selfgovernment agreement.

Here in the Northwest Territories, we are very fortunate to have very strong Chambers of Commerce. We have the NWT Chamber of Commerce and we have at least five or six chambers throughout the Northwest Territories in every region. We have a very close relationship, and the NWT Chamber of Commerce shares our view of the red tape report, and because of the fact that we are a small jurisdiction, we can interact almost on a one-to-one basis with businesses, especially when we travel to the regions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the main barriers, as I see it, is the ability to develop business plans and the access to financial assistance and aftercare so that the biggest barrier to being a successful business is getting through the first year and surviving for five years, so any aftercare we can provide. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.