Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I talked about the potential for the economic resource benefits in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister of ITI, on the assessment, has his department done an assessment of the oil and gas potential in the Northwest Territories? That is a remarkable resource. Canada right now has 8.8 billion barrels of oil that could be marketed. Has he done any assessment in the Northwest Territories?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been assessments done of the oil potential in the Sahtu and, in fact, in the Northwest Territories. We continue to move forward with the development of an Oil and Gas Strategy for the Northwest Territories. We are also going to conduct some work on the corridor concept down the Mackenzie Valley, communication, energy, transportation corridor. Of course, we’ve had the Mackenzie Gas Project that currently is on the shelf but our hope is that at some point in time Mackenzie gas will see market and we will get it out of the Beaufort-Delta. We have to look at this corridor concept and the fact that it can bring great economic potential all the way down the valley and into the Beaufort-Delta.
From our experience from the oil and gas development, and specifically I now want to focus in on the Sahtu region, has the Minister, through his department, done an assessment on the economic benefits around the oil and gas activity that happened in the last five years?
Yes, we continue to be involved with the Sahtu partnership. I’ve supplied some information to the Member recently about the investment that the government has made in his riding. It is substantial. It covers a number of different departments. While the downturn in oil price has happened, I think now is the time to continue to move forward with the development of our strategy. It’s time to get training put in place for people in the Sahtu and around the Northwest Territories so that when the price does come back and the companies come back and the drilling continues, we will have jobs for people and they’ll be trained to take advantage of those opportunities.
Hydraulic fracking in the Sahtu and in the North here has been highly controversial. The issue of the hydraulic fracking, I want to ask the Minister, in his experience and in his term as the Minister, are there safe regulations right now, today, over the years that we have looked at this new technology in the Sahtu in the Northwest Territories that says, yes, it can be done, we can manage it, we can deal with the risks? Are we dealing with the facts rather than the fears?
Our belief is that, yes, it can be done safely. It can be done, and we’ve seen it done here in the Northwest Territories. I know the Member highlighted other jurisdictions in Canada that have seen great success, Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, in using horizontal fracking. We are moving forward with regulations around hydraulic fracturing and we will have the best regulatory response in Canada when it comes to hydraulic fracturing, because we believe it can be done safely and soundly here in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister, given that we know for a fact that in the 1970s there was the first acid fracking in Cameron Hills, and today we are starting to realize that we want to continue doing more research around this horizontal fracking, has his department seen any type of shift in the land or in the area where fracking has taken place where there were downhole injections in the past in the areas that I’ve listed here? Thank you.
Undoubtedly, we do need baseline data, and that is data that will be sought. We are going to continue to move forward with the regulations here in the Northwest Territories. I have made a commitment to the Members that we are moving that forward. That is where that stands.
As far as research goes, we do know what’s happened here in the past. Of course, we’ve got our Devolution Agreement last April. We are now responsible for those regulations and managing the resource development in the territory. We, again, want to have the most robust, sound regulations when it comes to hydraulic fracturing and we will be going out, seeking public input on those draft regulations. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
