David Ramsay

Last year may have been the remnants of the BCP funding. We don’t have any BCP funding this year; hence, we have no dollars for Highway No. 8. Again, I can’t, you know, reiterate enough how important it is that we are successful with our Corridors for Canada III proposal to the federal government. We need this investment in our infrastructure across the territory. Thank you.

Yellowknife experienced these difficulties, I believe, about eight to 10 years ago and it was fixed using some insulation and other materials under the runway and we haven’t experienced problems since that was fixed. Again, that’s going back almost a decade.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There is no money for Highway No. 8 this year. We are waiting for the Corridors for Canada III proposal where we would have money on an ongoing basis for Highway No. 8.

No doubt, we are at the forefront of the climate change and the impact climate change is having here in the North. We have had the experience in Inuvik. We have had a similar experience and it’s an ongoing issue in Hay River. I know the Members from Hay River would know that. We’ve also had a small dip in one of the runways here in Yellowknife that we’ve had to remedy as well.

As far as work, the Northwest Territories, given our location and fact that we are on the front line of climate change, we can have a lot of impact in helping others deal with it, as well, and taking a look at how we can...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have done a great deal of work in that regard. We have had a geophysics summit on the Inuvik Airport back in 2011, I believe it was. For a more detailed response, I am going to go to Deputy Minister Neudorf with the technical answer for that. Thank you.

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.

Mr. Speaker, we probably have some of the most stringent regulatory requirements in North America here in the Northwest Territories. Nothing is going to happen unless it is regulated. Certainly after devolution, we will have a regulatory authority here in the Northwest Territories. It remains to be seen exactly how that is going to look. We continue to work towards that.

I want to give the Member and others the assurance that this is not going to be the Wild West with wells being drilled everywhere. We don’t have the issues that they have in North Dakota with a myriad of different land owners...

Anything we do in that regard would have to be done in conjunction with my colleague Minister Miltenberger, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and we would certainly look at getting the information out there. If it is hosting another community education symposium or workshop, call it what you will, that is what we want to see happen. We need to continue to get the misinformation off of the table and the real facts put squarely on the table. Thank you.

We needed a neutral third party, and I have to disagree with Mr. Bromley’s assertion that the Indian Resources Council is not a neutral third party. They were brought in at the request of the community of Fort Good Hope and the leadership in the community of Fort Good Hope. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents, entitled NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation 2012-13 Annual Report, and NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation 2013-14 Corporate Plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.