David Ramsay

I certainly support a balanced approach to this, and that’s where I’m at. I believe we can have a balanced approach. I said this before in the House and I’ll say it again today. We’re not going to be in the energy business unless we’re in the business of protecting the environment, and we need to be in both of those. Thank you.

We still have a portion of the process to get through, more communities to have meetings in. What we will do, and I have committed in the House last week, was to extend the period and the process until the end of August. We will take a look. I know Members are asking for more educational opportunities for communities. We will take everything we’ve heard into consideration and make a concerted effort to address the concerns we’ve heard and, again, carry the process out until the end of August and further if need be. Thank you.

Again, not that I am aware of. We have been seeing hydraulic fracturing for decades now, specifically in western Canada where there have been hundreds of thousands of wells drilled without incident, and it has happened here in the Northwest Territories without incident.

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Wednesday, June 3, 2015, I will move that Bill 59, Estate Administration Law Amendment Act, be read for the first time.

As I mentioned earlier, we are currently engaged with the Fishermen’s Federation. We are reviewing the subsidy program that we have in place. This really is, or would be, a short-term or band-aid solution. The real effort has to be into the long-term vision of the fishery on Great Slave Lake. But if there is a way we can continue to work with the Fishermen’s Federation in Hay River and the subsidy program, we want to ensure we are providing the supports we need to ensure we can get where we need to go, and that is have a vibrant commercial fishery industry on Great Slave Lake. Thank you.

I will be back in Ottawa next week, and of course this is an issue that is important to the Member, it’s important for our territory. We have to continue to focus our efforts on the revitalization of this fishery. We are going to try to attract more fishers. We also have a vision for what we want to see with the commercial fishery on Great Slave Lake, and I want to thank the Member and his counterpart, Mrs. Groenewegen, for their help and support in us trying to get where we need to go. Thank you.

The Member probably knows the area better than anybody, having spent as much time up there as he has. He would also know that there is an infrastructure there. Sometimes the only way to get in there is to hike in or to take a helicopter. The cost of remediating and cleaning up, you know, what are remote sites, is going to be very, very expensive. I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess today on what that would cost, but it will be a tremendous figure to clean and remediate the old Canol Trail.

The federal government excluded the transfer of the entire section of the Canol Heritage Trail – and the Member is correct; it is 222 miles, not kilometres – reserved for the Doi T’oh Territorial Park from the final Devolution Agreement. Subsurface rights were, however, transferred to the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. The Government of the Northwest Territories can still apply for transfer of administrative authority from the federal government, and the Government of the Northwest Territories will be seeking to have the land transferred for the Doi T’oh Territorial Park before the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize all the visitors that we have in the gallery today. I guess our tourism numbers are going to continue to rise, as a bunch of folks are visiting us from across the country. Welcome to Yellowknife and welcome to the Northwest Territories.

I also wanted to recognize Merlyn Williams, the president of the YK Seniors’ Society. I also wanted to recognize a former Bantam and Midget hockey coach of mine – he was a real inspiration for me as I was growing up – and his long-time involvement in minor hockey in Yellowknife, Mr. Joe Walsh. Thank you.