Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Environment. Several weeks ago an academic panel of experts put out a 295 page report on the hydraulic fracking in Canada. I want to ask the Minister if his department has taken a look at the report and compared it to what we already have in the Northwest Territories, what we have with the National Energy Board and what we have within our own land claims/water board provisions on this issue. Are we doing most of what the experts believe we need to be looking at or are we above and beyond what the report is stating? Has an analysis been...
In my research specifically in the Sahtu communities, I have noted that the high school students with greater or higher grades needing diplomas or certificates in the Sahtu. Norman Wells has 89 percent of students. Colville Lake is 78; Fort Good Hope, 68; Deline, 62; and Tulita, 58. These are good start points for measurements to say at some period of time that we want to get 100 percent of these students that have a higher than Grade 12 diploma. This leads me to my third question.
I understand from the last session, and I’ve been pressing the Minister very hard on a Sahtu needs assessment...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I talked about the celebration of students who have graduated from universities, colleges and other post-secondary institutions. I want to specifically focus on the Northwest Territories Aurora College graduates. These students have made some huge sacrifices to take their studies in the North, to leave their communities, and they have made sacrifices to the families. They have also done things that I just don’t know how they did it. They take on extra jobs, one or two jobs, study late at night to get a...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This morning I read in a newspaper ad, “To be proud of your history, you must know it. Education builds roots to the past that will open pathways to the future.” I thought about this quote because I want to talk about the graduates from Aurora College 2014, students that have undergone extreme conditions of hardship, sacrifice, but with the passion and enthusiasm to get an education for themselves and for their families; students who made the sacrifice to be away from home, away from family for a year, two years, three years, four years; students who know what it means...
Thank you, Madam Chair. My questions would hopefully stay within the confines of this bill here. I’m very interested in hearing what the issues are and the increase to the student financial assistance. Certainly, I spoke earlier in my Member’s statement of the struggles students have attending post-secondary education in colleges or universities. I want to ask the Minister, in regard to this increase, is the Minister, I guess… I’m glad to hear that the students are returning to the Northwest Territories, so is it to say that if a student has a loan and they come back to the Northwest...
Mr. Speaker, I certainly look for that information. I want to ask my last question to the Minister and to his colleague, that the Sahtu people have a land claim, a constitutionally protected document that was negotiated by the guidance of our elders in the Sahtu to take control of our destiny.
What type of approach is set by this department and this government on another protected area that is protected by the Constitution and jurisdiction as how do we work in relationship with land claim organizations that have these types of protection in regards to decision-making authorities on types of...
Mr. Speaker, the commonality that we have is there have been fracking operations in the Northwest Territories. Vertical, or the new one now we are using is called horizontal, so there has been fracking in the Northwest Territories.
I would like the Minister to provide me with more detailed information as to what type of impacts it had in those regions.
Have there been environmental studies? Is water being studied after that, or the air, the animals? That is so we have some baseline information as to where those actual fracking operations went in the Northwest Territories. Can the Minister do...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Sahtu has provisions within the land claims and the Sahtu Land Use Plan and, of course, our own co-management decision-making authority with our Sahtu Land and Water Board, so we’re in the driver’s seat on this issue here.
I want to ask the Minister, in the analysis of the report that came out by the academic experts, I’m not too sure if they looked at our authorities in the Sahtu to have this issue being looked at. I want to ask the Minister, other than the Sahtu region getting the attention on this hydraulic fracking, are there other fracking operations in the...
In the report that I briefly read, the summary, are there studies that we are already undertaking? We have the Sahtu Land Use Plan put together by primarily the elders in the Sahtu where they’re saying there’s development and there’s no development. I mean, our elders put this Sahtu Land Use Plan together over 15 years.
I want to ask the Minister of Environment, because the environment is very close to us. The elders know what they’re talking about. I want to ask, in regard to this report, is there any type of evidence that we’re doing right now that says we’re doing more than what the report...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to having this needs assessment discussed within the Sahtu, the leadership and the communities. I want to ask the Minister as I’ve also been pressing with the help of my colleagues on a feasibility study with the Sahtu technical institution, and that’s going to be greatly needed in the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister if he can provide the House and the people in the Sahtu, where is that specific project at, at this moment now?