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 done like that?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are aware of the report. We have done extensive work, a couple of years at least, of our own work looking at best practices and looking at other jurisdictions. There has been a lot of on-the-ground research done. Mr. Ramsay has taken a number of groups to different sites to take a look first-hand. We now have regulatory authority, we have a development assessment process. We are looking at that report along with all the other work that’s out there in terms of the best practices. As we look at the issue of hydraulic fracking, how do we do it in the best way possible that will honour our obligation and commitment to people and look after the land, water and animals at the same time and have balanced sustainable development? So, that report will add some information and value to those processes. Thank you.
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 is stating?
We, as a government, are aware of the need to do, within the Sahtu, some regional groundwater mapping. The baseline work on wildlife, that work is underway. There is work being done through the Environmental Studies Research Fund, which is a fund and a program that involves the federal government and the territorial government as well as assistance from industry. We’ve got money invested there, nearly a million dollars as well. The industry representatives have been very forthcoming in terms of offering to share the site-specific work that they have to do in regard to groundwater and wildlife impacts that we could add to that knowledge base. We are clearly now embarked upon that project over the long term to conclude that much needed baseline information.
The technique that I understood from Husky and Conoco’s personnel, and of course our own research in our communities, is that the hydraulic fracking would go down about two kilometres underground. Some of the other fears that people have is that there are only shallow wells that will be hydraulically fracked. That’s not the case in the case in the Sahtu.
Is there any type of method that can reassure the people that when we do hydraulic fracking underground two kilometres, that if there are any type of tracers that you can put in the fluid that shows that the actual chemicals are coming up out of that type of operation? Is there any type of information that you have that could reassure our people that from other locations that they’re doing hydraulic fracking that this is probably something that we could use in determining our decision as to the methods being used in the Sahtu?
As the individual projects are permitted, there are going to be the requirements to look at those types of issues. What we are committing to, of course, is a thorough monitoring on an ongoing basis. We’ll be able to track to very, very close range the need to go below groundwater tables and then there will be ongoing monitoring on site. We’ve also developed a process across the Northwest Territories with community-based groundwater monitoring that we’ll be looking and testing water on a regular basis, so we are going to have all the steps and best practices in place that we need to provide those assurances.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
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 Northwest Territories?
We’ve been in the oil business for literally decades. There has been a tremendous amount of traditional vertical drilling and fracking. The issue of horizontal is something that is, from my understanding, new to the Northwest Territories and is being looked at carefully through the process we’ve just been talking about here in this House. I’m not aware that there was any other horizontal fracking that I’m aware of.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Hawkins.
