Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t want the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources to feel passed over today. I know we can pick on the others here. My question will be for the Minister, as lead Minister of the Joint Review Panel on the report on the Mackenzie Gas Project.
Mr. Speaker, I will be tabling today the Joint Review Panel’s letter of comment on the interim response of the federal and territorial governments to the Joint Review Panel’s report putting the matter for consideration in Committee of the Whole. I don’t think it is possible to overstate the rejection in the Joint Review Panel’s clear indictment of the government’s joint interim response. The JRP summarizes its condemnation in 50 short words. “The panel has concluded that, in the absence of implementation of its recommendations and in particular those recommendations directed to the governments, the adverse impacts of this project could be significant and its contribution towards sustainability could be negative. In that event, the opportunity for the project to provide accommodation for a sustainable northern future would be lost.”
Mr. Speaker, given this clear, frank and unequivocal statement, does the government intend to radically modify its response? And I stress the word “radically.”
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member forgot unambiguous as well.
---Laughter
Anyway, Mr. Speaker, there is a process underway. The Joint Review Panel has played a key role and did the initial report. The initial response was done. We did our duty to consult, we consulted with all the aboriginal governments. We are involved. We shared that information with the Joint Review Panel. They came back with a letter. The Member is referring to it. He said he would table it later today. That letter is now being thoroughly and fully reviewed and looked at. We are still in the finalizing stage of the report and it is going to be looked at very carefully, along with the other feedback we have picked up through this process. That report will be finalized in the coming weeks.
I just want to assure the Member and the people of the Northwest Territories that the Government of the Northwest Territories takes its responsibility to speak for and protect the interests of people in the Northwest Territories very, very seriously and we are looking at this issue very closely. As I indicated in my number of press conferences since yesterday, that that report, when it comes out, will be signed off by both governments and we will be standing by that report. It has not been concluded. There’s been a key role played by the JRP and that is being factored in as we speak. Thank you.
Thank you. The Minister has once again said wait and see. I don’t accept that response. I’m trying to bring some accountability to this process, and this side of the House has consistently tried to have input into this process as a consensus government. So I’m asking again, Mr. Speaker, since the JRP has clearly rejected the response of the governments, does this government intend to radically alter its response? I need to know this from this Minister -- he’s our Minister -- does this Minister intend to radically adjust its response and commit to the full set of actions the JRP says are indispensible to preventing environmental and social disaster from this project? Thank you.
Thank you. We are looking at the report, or the response from the JRP. Ourselves, as representatives of the Government of the Northwest Territories, representing the people of the Northwest Territories, as well as the federal government, and I can indicate to the Member once again that we are hard at work looking at all that information, the response, the recommendations, issues of concern by the JRP as well as other folks. We received feedback under the agree to consult, for example, and that we will be concluding in the next few weeks the report and we will be putting that out to the public. We’ll give it to the National Energy Board, it will be posted and then we will be in a position to defend that, and that’s the process. Thank you.
Thank you. The Mackenzie Gas Project would be the biggest capital project ever mounted in Canada, huge in world scale and an environmental and economic earthquake for many of the people in the Northwest Territories. The people have spent four years and $20 million contributing to a report they presumed would address their concerns with the project, and these are people selected from the people of the NWT by the government. The Joint Review Panel produced that report with exhaustive, expert and constructive recommendations, and now our governments intend to throw that wisdom in the wastebasket. Can the Minister suggest to us why we should ever have faith, why the people of the Northwest Territories should ever have faith in governments when this is clearly against all reason?
Thank you. The Member is overdramatizing, I believe, the circumstance. We’re not throwing anything away. We have been part of this process from the start. It was agreed to many years ago, the role of the JRP, the role of the responsible Ministers, and its recommendations we are looking at and are going to respond to. I’m saying to the people of the Northwest Territories they should continue to have full trust in the Government of the Northwest Territories in this area and all the other areas that we deliver programs and work to protect and advance their interests, and this will be no different. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The time for question period has expired; however, I will allow the Member a final supplementary question. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to ask apology for leaping to conclusions on the basis of overwhelming evidence, but I will certainly hope to be proven wrong in this case and that the public can in fact have that confidence. For now though, Mr. Speaker, I want to note that the Minister, I believe, said this morning on the CBC Radio interview that it’s now up to the elected representatives of the people of the Northwest Territories, and I believe that includes 11 Members on this side of the House. So I assume that we will have some input into what we’re going to do with this situation, the panel’s rejection of the government’s response, and that we’ll get things on track.
So I’m asking the Minister, will he now act basically with the honour that the people of the Northwest Territories are expecting to support their decisions here? Thank you.
Thank you. It’s a good thing that after 15 years I’ve got a thick political hide when he says “will I now act with the honour people expect” implies that up until now I have not been, and I would, of course, take grave exception to that.
I stand here very, very committed, as I’ve indicated, to looking to the interests as a Minister of this government to people of the Northwest Territories and it’s something that consumes me just about every waking moment that I do have. Yes, we will do, and we are doing, and will continue to do all the things necessary to protect the interests of the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
