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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Wednesday, June 3, 2015, I will move that Bill 62, An Act to Amend the Coroners Act, be read for the first time.

I give notice that on Wednesday, June 3, 2015, I will move that Bill 63, An Act to Amend the Victims of Crime Act, be read for the first time.

I give notice that on Wednesday, June 3, 2015, I will move that Bill 64, An Act to Amend the Co-operative Associations Act, be read for the first time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “NWT Oil and Gas Annual Report 2014.”

Our South Slave regional office is currently reviewing our subsidy program. Of course, they are going to continue to engage with the Fishermen’s Federation. Now that we have developed a business plan with the Fishermen’s Federation, we will have to bring that plan and the fishery into the 21st century by dramatically changing all the fundamentals that have been in place for well over four decades. This plan proposes new ownership, new responsibilities, new markets, a new commitment and, finally, the plan will bring along a new, long overdue vision, as I mentioned earlier, that will support the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The federal government has been very good supporters of economic development here through the CanNor office here in Yellowknife and across the North. We continue to discuss, with the federal government, an opportunity to invest in a commercial fishery on Great Slave Lake, and we do need about $5.5 million to put in an export grade fish plant in Hay River. We have earmarked $1.5 million. We’re going to need some partners. We have to continue to put the question on the table to the feds. I had the opportunity last year to meet with Minister Shea in Ottawa. We’ve invited...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The proposed park, of course, follows the now defunct Canol Pipeline built during World War II, of course. It includes several waste sites with abandoned buildings. I know the Member and I have toured some of those abandoned buildings, equipment and vehicles interlinked with an old roadway. These sites present hazards to human and animal health, including oil spills, exposed asbestos, structurally unsafe buildings as well as almost 650 linear kilometres of copper coated steel telephone wire. There’s a lot out there that needs to be remediated, needs to be looked at.

I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; the federal government has made a commitment to remediate the area. They say it’s going to take five years. Sometimes they say one thing and it may take, in fact, longer than the five years that they’ve committed to. But the other issue here is we had wanted them to take the class 1 sites – there are four of them to be remediated – but the fact remains that they have that entire stretch of 222 kilometres, one kilometre on either side of it. It’s a big area and it’s going to require a lot of work to remediate.

We continue to look at that as an...

Mr. Speaker, this is National Tourism Week and across the NWT we are celebrating with events ranging from the “Be A Tourist In Your Own Town” promotion here in Yellowknife to community picnics, film screenings, open houses and complementary tours of local attractions.

There is much to celebrate and I would like to take a moment to highlight some of the recent successes and milestones this vibrant sector of our economy has achieved.

Last October I shared with Members that over 90,000 visitors travelled to the Northwest Territories in the 2013-14 fiscal year. That is the highest number of visitors...