David Ramsay

Thank you. It wouldn’t be a great deal of money to get that fixed and that guardrail raised up. I certainly will make a commitment to get that figure to Members. We have to remember that where the Deh Cho Bridge is, bison that are in the area, that river is frozen six and a half months out of the year. They could certainly walk across there, and bison have been known to swim up to a kilometre at a time, so they could certainly swim across the river.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The highway remains safe. We have made the effort to lower the posted speed limit on that highway.

The Member is right; it has soaked up a tremendous amount of capital dollars over the years, and is in constant requirement for funding for maintenance and maintenance work. The work has been studied on maintenance. We are doing research on the road itself, again, to try to mitigate the impact climate change has had on that highway. We’ll have to continue to put money into that highway. Through Corridors for Canada III we’re looking at another investment to rehabilitate...

Thank you. If the Member did raise that issue in the House in regard to the expansion of the airport in Aklavik, I will take a look back at that.

On the emergency airstrip for Tsiigehtchic, again, unless the Member, perhaps he’s raised that in a Member’s statement. I don’t recall that as well, but maybe we’ll go to the deputy minister for a response to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The gate itself was in the neighbourhood of half a million dollars. The good news is that that gate does work. The bison that did appear on that bridge and in photos that appeared on social media didn’t go across the Texas gate that was installed. It in fact went around and jumped a guardrail and got onto the bridge. The Department of Transportation is currently looking at a remedy to see that bison can’t go down on the right-hand side of the bridge and jump the guardrail and get on that bridge again. So we’re taking steps to ensure that that does not happen again.

Again...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t believe we’ve had any discussions with the neighbouring communities, but that’s something we could certainly undertake. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we can certainly look at that. I would be more than happy to discuss the opportunity with my colleague Minister Miltenberger of ENR and set out to get some more community workshops and exercises like that underway. One of the things I think will also go a long way to helping community members understand the process is – and I believe the Member saw a big display case which showed a well being drilled and then going out horizontally and explaining the process of hydraulic fracturing in layman’s terms – I think if we put that in the local language and also in English, and put these...

Mr. Speaker, what we heard resoundingly in both southeastern Saskatchewan and North Dakota is that if people could do it all over again, they have the ability to plan and get ready for the development. That is what we have here. We have an opportunity. We have some time on our side. There is an application here to hopefully drill and frack two wells this coming winter here in the Northwest Territories.

I believe we can balance protecting the environment with advancing the economy here in the Northwest Territories and getting people the jobs and opportunities that they require. We have to have...

The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment would have helped communities fund these workshops that have been much anticipated in the Sahtu. For a detailed breakdown of costs and who is paying for what, I will make a commitment today to get the Member that information. Certainly, we have been looking for partners to help pay for these workshops. That is how we have gone about this, is partnerships, and if that’s with industry and communities, that’s how we are going to continue to pursue getting people the education that they need when it comes to making an informed decision about...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a lot of misinformation out there when it comes to hydraulic fracturing, and the Northwest Territories is no different.

It has been suggested many times that we do more community meetings and workshops when it comes to hydraulic fracturing. At the suggestion of the community of Fort Good Hope, who wanted a third-party workshop to be set up in the communities in the Sahtu – the Member mentioned the communities of Norman Wells and Fort Good Hope – this week. We are also hoping to have meetings take place in Deline and also Tulita. The meeting in Fort Good Hope...

Mr. Speaker, there is probably about 75 million reasons why Conoco does drill those wells in the Sahtu this winter that I can come to the Sahtu with the Member. Certainly, I know industry has been open to getting visits to well sites, allowing people onto their working areas to show them the process, to show them how it works. I must say we had an opportunity near Weyburn, Saskatchewan, to get out on a well that was being fracked. I must say, it wasn’t very exciting. Some of the pressures were going up and the lights were flashing, but certainly the earth wasn’t shaking. Thank you.