Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Chair, just one question. This past August the Minister and I and the deputy minister were up in Deline on Great Bear Lake, and we certainly enjoyed the time there, and also we had the opportunity to be on the river and check the fish and the wildlife and the Great Bear Lake, and went on the Bear River and made sure everything was copasetic there with the people there. However, we were using a wildlife officer’s somewhat questionable boat there that seemed unsuitable for that lake. Maybe it was suitable for a river, but that lake there was quite… I’m not too sure if it was a good fit for...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, committee. Mr. Chair, I want to ask a question on the project listing in tourism and parks regarding the Canol Heritage Park. I would certainly like to thank the Minister and the government for recognizing that this park is going to become a territorial park, hopefully within the years left within this government here. The beginning of this park has seen dollars in developing the park like we develop other parks in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister about the infrastructure going into the Canol Heritage Trail and the Canol Doi T’oh...

No.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have made my Member’s statement on the hydraulic fracking that potentially is going to happen this year in the Sahtu. The company of ConocoPhillips is going to do two exploration wells. With the recent trip to the Bakken formation and seeing the activity down in North Dakota and southeastern Saskatchewan, it certainly was overwhelming. There you can see the different jurisdictions, the different rules that apply in that area, and so it is like the Wild West, really. Up in the Sahtu we have some provisions and some regulations in place, plus we have some time to do it...

Mr. Chair, the Minister and deputy minister are correct on the issue here. I’m glad to hear that. I would remind the Minister that when there are issues like this, because we were caught off guard when we went to Fort Good Hope… Actually, we drove to the tank farm and we saw this. I wasn’t aware of it until I actually drove to the tank farm. If there is any type of reporting of future fuel spills, I would appreciate being notified by the department.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We came, we saw, we can frack. With the recent tour down to North Dakota and eastern Saskatchewan, I want to thank the Minister for taking us, the leaders, members of the committee, on the exploration of hydraulic fracking in that region.

Hydraulic fracking in the Sahtu promises to secure our energy future if we do it right and responsibly. We are looking at hydraulic fracking as our path to greatness, and anything to do with greatness is a risk. For example, people put men on the moon, and that’s a great risk.

I want to say that our land is rich. For example, just look...

Just one more. I just want to again thank the Minister and thank the government for looking at the alternative heating system. I am very happy, at least for our assets, we’re off the gas and looking at alternative heating for our buildings. Certainly I will be asking later on. I had some discussion with the Minister of ENR in terms of helping the business outside the government’s realm of responsibility, and the private homeownership is still somewhat our responsibility. I don’t know how I can word that. Anyhow, I’m happy that the school will be looking at this project along with the airport...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The comments that I have will focus around the upgrade to the Tulita fuel tank farm. We appreciate it and it’s looking like it’s coming together, and certainly, as I talked to the Minister earlier, and hopefully, once the Tulita tank farm has been completed, I would like to sit with the Minister and review the infrastructure on that project. There were some inquiries earlier when it did begin and there was some, I’m not too sure if it was a misunderstanding or a misinterpretation as to the project itself in regard to some of the community’s expectations and how the...

Just a short comment there, Madam Chair. It’s just with the increase of the infrastructure in the communities. It’s very interesting to hear the Minister talk about further discussions and the formula funding. Of interest, I want to raise the point of type of infrastructure that possibly could be needed in the town of Norman Wells with the increase of the oil and gas activity and that sort of being the regional staging area for the oil and gas companies in regard to the different activity that’s going to happen this year and next year. Is that something that the government is looking at, that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The whole apparatus of the National Energy Board will be mostly under the Minister, so how can the Assembly itself guess that we can go through that discussion, because the policies and the regulations would flow from the Minister on overseeing this new working relationship with the National Energy Board. The Assembly itself being part of the input to give advice on the regulations and policies to the hydraulic fracking that could possibly happen in the Sahtu.