Norman Yakeleya

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.

Certainly. With the transition of the National Energy Board having a new employer in regard to the enforcement of the oil and gas exploration, would the National Energy Board be obligated, then, to follow the guidelines that the Northwest Territories Assembly as a whole would want to enforce in regard to the operations such as the hydraulic fracking method?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regards to equality in the Northwest Territories, we see and I’ve read in the newspaper – the Yellowknifer – this morning, that the federal government approved another mine for the Yellowknife area, another diamond mine. So all its benefits, once this mine is approved, this region will see it.

I’m asking the Minister why we don’t have the same type of benefits in the Sahtu region that we know the hydraulic fracking can bring to us. I ask the Minister, would he then seek the guidance of the EDI, maybe working with the EDI committee members to go into the communities...

Mr. Speaker, with the technology of hydraulic fracking and understanding that there is a risk to the hydraulic fracking, we saw that in the Bakkens and we’re certainly going to see it in the Northwest Territories.

I want to ask the Minister what types of mechanisms are in place right now to limit, to address some of the risks that potentially could happen. It is no different than the people in NASA when they started out to put a man on the moon. There were risks associated with it. It is no different than what we are doing in the Northwest Territories with hydraulic fracking. How are we going...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Department of Health and Social Services certainly has put some of its infrastructure where it’s needed, into our regions. I continue to thank the government for the support on the new wellness centre in Norman Wells and the territorial long-term care facility that’s associated with it. I know that’s something that’s needed and certainly the people in the Sahtu and surrounding communities that have sent out their elders to Inuvik or the Yellowknife area and to Fort Simpson appreciate that one day we will have a centre in the Sahtu, where we can have our elders closer...

Our land is powerful and has many promises. What we do as keepers of the land will determine the quality of the life we live.

I call upon this government and our people to take the time to learn about hydraulic fracking and about the balance that we need to consider, and also about having the EDI committee play a role in the upcoming guidelines and public education involving hydraulic fracking in the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

A quick question, Mr. Chair. A tank safety valve device that we are putting into our tank farm, I know there was some issue with the Fort Good Hope specific parts and it caused some leakage to the community, to the department, and we had some issues with that. Is that somewhat being corrected? We had some losses in terms of quantity of fuel being spilled onto the ground there.