David Ramsay

The public engagement sessions are, of course, public engagement. The consultation with Aboriginal governments has started. I’ve written letters to the Aboriginal governments around the Northwest Territories. That is in the works, that consultation period. The added time to the end of August will give us an opportunity to get to gatherings and other commitments around the territory where gatherings are taking place. We will have folks attend assemblies and provide information and talk to people about the process and how we’re moving this effort forward.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents, entitled “Office of the Regulator of Oil and Gas Operations Annual Report 2014-2015” and “Hydraulic Fracturing Public Information.”

I guess you could flip that over and say there are jurisdictions in this country that do allow the process. Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, even the Yukon recently made a decision to allow fracking in the Yukon Territory, in a small portion of the territory.

We want to be a have territory. We want to have jobs. We want to have a diversified economy. We need jobs in regions that currently have high unemployment rates.

We can manage this resource. We’re in the risk-management business. Nothing happens without some risk, but you have to weigh the benefits with those risks, and we believe...

I believe it has been well advertised, public announcements and posters around the community. I can get, again, detail for the Member on what has happened to let the public know. It was unfortunate two communities in the Member’s riding, we were unable to get in there initially because of weather, but those meetings are scheduled, as the Member mentioned, for next week.

Again, not that I am aware of, but that is a pretty specific question. We can get that level of detail for the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We inherited a system from the National Energy Board of Canada. We are moving forward with draft regulations of our own that take into consideration the views and needs of Northerners, specifically air quality, water quality and management, and disclosure. We are moving forward with that process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a great pleasure to welcome some more students to the House today to see our proceedings. We have a Grade 6 class from St. Joseph school. I would just like to recognize all of them today, if I could. They are accompanied by Jennifer Genge, their teacher; and Mr. Stephen Richardson, classroom assistant. Matthew Baggs, Gabe Beard, Aaradhana Bhattarai, Claire Cooper, Quinn Critch, Red Dela Prez, Jaida Dowe, Vincent Embodo, Ashlin Gauchier, Caelem Grandjambe, Brandon Koe, Vy Luu, Carleigh Luxon – she is not there – Gairon Mason, Jace Menton, Laurelle Pittman, Kassandra...

If the question is directly related to water, it would be best answered by the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

I think the Member is taking a lot of liberties with the good, hardworking park officers that we have here in the Northwest Territories, specifically in the North Slave region. As I mentioned to him earlier, get us the specifics, let us look into it. Yes, there are park officers working in the parks, I don’t have the particulars of when this happened, but I will get an answer for the Member.

Just to throw out accusations without any detail, that’s not doing anybody any favours. Again, I did that job for seven years. It’s a hard job, and I want to thank all the park officers that we have out...

Having spent four years with MLA Bromley in the committee of EDI during the life of the last government, I did learn a lot about climate change. I want to thank him for that. If he was more specific about one publication or another, I am familiar with the science on climate change. But if he is specific about one piece of work or another, then I may be able to comment on that. As far as a blanket statement, I am not sure what the Member is getting at. Thank you.