Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of the application for the hydraulic horizontal fracking would be, of course, the application. Is our government going to wait to see what type of information the application is going to be calling for, or are we going to go ahead and say, well, we have to look at the baseline for the water, quality of the air, the animals? I’m trying to get a sense that we have a good stance in terms of responding to the application that when it does come through, it is coming through.

The oil companies are very encouraged with the Canol shale play in the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister, within the next couple months, I believe even by next month, there might be possibly an application going in for horizontal fracking in the Sahtu. The Minister has talked about the long term. Is there anything in the short term between now and the application that has reached the regulatory boards? Is this information going to be sufficient for us to judge it on the merits of this procedure?

I encourage the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to begin to pay close attention to all developments in the areas of protection and environmental stewardship, and to study best practices in other jurisdictions. We need to make the best choice and find ways to mitigate the impacts of this technology on our land, water, people and animals. Life flows from our water.

So I look forward to this Minister moving with his other colleagues and looking at where these dollars are going to be spent for the upcoming years. We have eight communities. I hope the Minister can forward me a list later on as to which communities do not have health nurses actually in the community, so that we can look at some proper staffing of these communities with some of these basic essential needs such as the health nurses in our communities. In the same line I will be asking questions to the Minister of Justice on communities that do not have RCMP, what type of plans are in place to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to ask the Minister when his department will begin bringing forward plans to staff health centres or nursing stations that are without nurses in communities. How many communities does the Northwest Territories have without nurses at their health centres?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I look forward to some of the rationale and to see where we go from there.

I want to ask the Minister, in light of the recent attention that the Sahtu is receiving with the oil and gas exploration activities and the number of workers coming into the region, when we’re looking at medevacs, it seems logical that a community such as Norman Wells would serve the Sahtu region and would be more stabilized in terms of medevacs for our region.

I want to ask the Minister, when the evaluation is being looked at, that the community of Norman Wells or the Sahtu is the hotspot or it...

Madam Chair, maybe I could have expanded a little more on the question. That is the answer from the deputy minister, is usually a normal backup plan is to provide by the carrier. Sometimes that may not be the case. If one plane is not available, and another aircraft carrier is not available, then what is the backup, say, in the Sahtu region if the aircraft are not available and we have an aircraft company sitting in the Sahtu and just sitting at North-Wright in Norman Wells? Are they being asked to help with the medevac services for that period of time? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My questions have to do with medevacs in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the department when will this exist, and who and when will this contract be up for renewal, or when is the department going to go out for additional airline companies to look at this contract.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the process of the application for fracking does go through in the Sahtu possibly next month, possibly this summer, do we have enough protection for the people of the Northwest Territories, protection for the people in the Sahtu region that we could withstand the test of the application saying yes, we have the baseline information? Can the Minister assure me we have the baseline information on the animals, the water, the air, the things that need to be to ensure our lifestyle will remain intact, even if we go ahead with the fracking?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of ENR regarding the fracking technology that will possibly be used in the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister regarding this technology what the Environment and Natural Resources baseline data information he’s using to measure the impacts and quality of land, air, water, animals. What type of information does he have to look at the types of impacts that fracking could cause in our region?