David Ramsay

On April 1, 2014, this government made a commitment to the people of the Northwest Territories to devolve and then evolve. We have been at this for just over a year, it is an evolution process. We are continuing to work on a process, and I know the Member is saying we should ask that question right up front. The process isn’t even halfway through. Yesterday in this House I committed to giving us as much time as we need. We are going to take to the end of August to get public comment.

We are going to go through this process, and Members on that side of the House seem to want to pre-empt that...

Again, the rhetoric doesn’t really do anything to the discussion that we’re having today. We are involved in a process. We’re going to see ourselves through that process. We believe that we can manage the resource, we can manage the environmental concern and I’m not the only Minister in this government. We’ve got a Cabinet on this side of the House. I’m not making decisions unilaterally. We are moving forward and we are going to be looking at the environmental concerns, we’re going to be looking at the opportunities, the economic opportunities.

I’ll say it again, we haven’t made a decision yet...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members know, the Government of the Northwest Territories inherited filing requirements from the National Energy Board when we took over responsibility for oil and gas activity onshore here in the Northwest Territories. We have strong regulations and rules in place to protect the environment. We’ve heard from the standing committee. We’ve heard from the public. We’re halfway through the process that we have today embarked upon. We heard about water quality, air quality and disclosure. We’re addressing these things, Mr. Speaker. I know the Member has said, while there...

We do do that type of work, and I guess a good case in point is the Tuk Inuvik Highway. It was very important that the money stay in the North and that local contractors were involved there. We see the benefit of that with the employment levels in both communities of Tuktoyaktuk and also in Inuvik and other communities in the Beaufort-Delta as well.

There are ways the government can continue to emphasize the importance of keeping money here in the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to look at opportunities to do just that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We looked at this a few years back and we had contracted a company to take a look at the scenarios and how we could do our bid adjustments. A couple of different scenarios were put in place and at that time it wasn’t considered necessary to be looking at the changes to the current adjustments. But that’s not to say that as we go forward, Members and the business community here in the Northwest Territories may have other ideas on how we can strengthen the Business Incentive Policy here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

We’ve been at this for all of 14 months. It’s been our responsibility to manage oil and gas activity onshore in the Northwest Territories. It’s only been 14 months.

We are in a process right now. That is not the question. The Member is trying to ask that question. That is not the question we’re asking right now. Don’t we owe it to the residents of the Northwest Territories to better understand exactly what we’re getting ourselves into before we ask that question, before we throw that opportunity out for the people that live in the central Mackenzie Valley and in the Sahtu who are hungry for the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We worked long and hard to get our Devolution Agreement with the federal government. We also made a decision to regulate the oil and gas industry here in the Northwest Territories ourselves. Had we not made that decision, the industry would be regulated from Calgary by the National Energy Board, and Members on the other side of the House would not have the opportunity to question anybody and our government wouldn’t have opportunity to influence policy or direction on regulations. That would be left up to the National Energy Board of Canada.

What we have in front of us is...

We need to know what we’re getting ourselves into. We’ve spent the last four years, we’ve had trips to the Bakken, to Calgary with Members of the standing committee. We are trying to learn and trying to understand, and as I mentioned in response to some questions yesterday, not every basin is the same. The water quantity that would be required to frack a well in the central Mackenzie Valley is not the same as the Bakken. The geology is much different. We have to understand all of these things. It’s easy to make a decision and just cast an opportunity aside. We want to study that opportunity...

It’s too bad I can’t ask questions to the Member because I’d like to ask the Member where she found out that I was quoted as saying that at any cost we want development in the central Mackenzie Valley. I never said that, so I want to get that on the record as well.

We have a process in place and we are going to continue that process. We haven’t made any decisions, and some of the rhetoric that’s coming from some of the Regular Members, it would say that we have made decisions. We haven’t made any decisions and I want to be clear on that.

We’ve given ourselves more time. We’ll take as much time...

As Members know, as part of our decentralization we did move the BIP office to the community of Hay River. I will get the information that the Member is asking for and I’ll provide that to all Members when the registry is reviewed and when that happens. Thank you.