Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, if the Minister could tell the House whether, as the Minister, he supports the idea of a moratorium. Yes or no. Mahsi.
I certainly support a balanced approach to this, and that’s where I’m at. I believe we can have a balanced approach. I said this before in the House and I’ll say it again today. We’re not going to be in the energy business unless we’re in the business of protecting the environment, and we need to be in both of those. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement on fracking, as well I have questions for the Minister of ITI. The first question today is, I know the Minister has indicated they’re continuing to do some consultation with the public. Has the department changed any of its presentation? Have they started to include more information on actual hydraulic fracturing and what it does, what it is? Because that’s been one of the questions we’ve been getting from people and the concerns of if we’re getting the information out to people. Not just the regulations, but are we now presenting that to the public? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, later today I’m going to table some information, and a lot of this information we do hand out at public meetings. We have included folks from ENR and there have been people attend meetings from Lands. They need to be there to help us answer any questions the public might have. A lot of this is an educational opportunity for the government to let people know about the technique, how it works, what the risks are and what the potential benefits are through these draft regulations.
These draft regulations, again, address areas of concern for Northerners, air quality and water quality management, and disclosure. We are going to do our best to ensure that we get this right so that the technique can be regulated here in the Northwest Territories to the best of our ability. Thank you.
I know they can’t go to all the communities, so I am wondering if the department is looking at another step in this process of consultation on hydraulic fracturing.
Is the department looking at any kind of conference or fracking charrette that we can have members who are interested to participate throughout the Northwest Territories come to a common area to have that discussion? Thank you.
Again, the process is playing itself out. We still have some communities that we need to get in and have our meetings. But at the end of that process, we are going to look at other opportunities to work with communities and educate people. I know that Member Yakeleya and I talked about a possible elders summit on hydraulic fracturing in the Sahtu. That is something that I think we could take a look at potentially having sometime. If there are opportunities to get into communities to help educate the public on hydraulic fracturing, we need to take that opportunity. We have some time here. Again, we need to ensure that we get this right.
My next question is the Minister was talking about the commitment of August. I am just wondering if the Minister will actually extend that to the next session period in September/October to make sure that the Regular Members have the opportunity over the summer to talk to their constituents and give that feedback in the September sitting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
With the added time, we are going to have the opportunity to get to assemblies so Members can get back to their constituencies to talk to people. We will come back here in August.
Again, if we need some more time, we are sitting again at the end of September, first week of October. We will have to get back in front of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure and Regular Members who want to attend that meeting. I would be happy to get that feedback, let the Regular Members know how the process went, what we heard and what the next steps are going to be. All of this is going to happen in due course. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am just wondering if the Minister could look into some of the opportunities that we could get some feedback from the general public. Maybe have a third party do a polling of some of the communities where they are not going in for public consultation to get some feedback. You know, whether you support fracking, if you require more information on it, just to get an indication of where the general public sits on those two topics. Thank you.
We hadn’t contemplated doing any polling. We are going to move forward with the plan that we have. If we need to make adjustments to that plan, we will do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a follow-up to my Member’s statement, as well, I would like to ask the Minister, will the department open up the requests from communities to have the Department of ITI travel to the communities on the regulations for horizontal hydraulic fracturing? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve had some communities that we have had public engagement sessions in. If the Member has a community that we haven’t been in that he believes would benefit from us going to the community to talk about the draft regulations, we could entertain a letter from the community and take things from there. Like I said, we have some more time and if we get requests from communities, we will take that into consideration. Thank you.
Out of all eight communities in the Beaufort-Delta region, they only travelled to Inuvik, so I welcome and invite the Minister to all three of my communities if that’s possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. That was more just a comment but, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand the Member’s concern. Again, if the leadership in those communities and the Member feel strongly that they would like to see us in those communities, whether we can get to all three or not, we will try our best. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I mentioned, hydraulic fracturing is very new to this territory. I would like to ask the Minister, is the department open to having workshops in our communities on horizontal hydraulic fracturing as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We’ve had a number of workshops in the Sahtu, in the riding where we have seen activity. Whether we would move workshops outside of the Sahtu remains to be seen. But again, I think, given the fact that we do have this world-class opportunity in the central Mackenzie Valley, looking at opportunities to get into communities to discuss hydraulic fracturing could be very beneficial. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A number of years back there was a big concern on caribou in the Northwest Territories and the department at the time, I believe it was ENR, held a caribou summit.
I would like to ask the Minister, will the Minister hold a hydraulic fracturing summit here in the capital and invite all the communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We are going one step further than that. We are getting out across the Northwest Territories. We are meeting with people in their home communities and we will continue to do that. As I mentioned to the Member, if there are communities that want to see us show up on their doorstep to talk about these draft regulations, that is something we will consider. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for Mr. Ramsay, Minister Ramsay of ITI.
I would like to first ask if the Minister’s department agrees with the science on climate change. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would have to see the science the Member talks about. Thank you.
It’s of great concern if the Minister hasn’t seen the science on climate change. I think everybody in the world should see it, but probably not nearly as much as this Minister should.
Would the Minister commit to becoming intimately familiar with the scientific conclusions on climate change? Mahsi.
Having spent four years with MLA Bromley in the committee of EDI during the life of the last government, I did learn a lot about climate change. I want to thank him for that. If he was more specific about one publication or another, I am familiar with the science on climate change. But if he is specific about one piece of work or another, then I may be able to comment on that. As far as a blanket statement, I am not sure what the Member is getting at. Thank you.
Does the Minister of the department and the public support the permanent toxification or pollution of billions of litres of fresh water annually taken from our surface water in the NWT, polluted and stored forever, hopefully, safely underground? Mahsi.
Again, the Member is asking me some pretty leading questions and I take that question as notice. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of ITI, we need to look at this issue of fracking in the Northwest Territories. A lot of the questions we need to face are to face the unknowns but, more importantly, address the fears of the unknowns and have a respectful discussion.
About the water and the chemicals, there are comments out there as to the issue of the use of water and chemicals, and it’s pretty frightening when you look at them. Since the 1920s, Imperial Oil has been drilling. The Sahtu Land and Water Board renewed the Esso licence that is drawing millions, if not billions, over a 10-year period. Husky’s well application, if you look at the Esso amount of water that they’re going to be taking out, half of it going to the oil plant operation and half will go back into the Mackenzie River. Husky’s application is 0.1 percent of Imperial’s request.
I want to know from the Minister, has he seen any other alterations in the water around the Deh Cho including Fort Liard and to the Cameron Hills? Could the Minister direct me to which question that he can answer on these two points?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Ramsay.
If the question is directly related to water, it would be best answered by the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Yakeleya.
Could I direct my questions to the Minister of ENR?
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now I have to beg the indulgence of the House to restate the question so I can get it clearly. I was doing some other things.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya, you’re going to have to restate your question for the proper Minister. You started off with ITI and then you switched over to ENR. You’re only allowed one question per Minister. Now, the guy who can do that is the Premier, so we’ll go from there.
I do apologize, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of ITI, in his discussions with his colleagues from ENR, has the Minister seen any type of alterations in the water use in other areas where there has been hydraulic fracking in the Cameron Hills and around the Fort Liard area?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Not that I am aware of.
I want to ask the Minister of ITI, in regard to the hydraulic fracking that had been happening in the Fort Liard area under the Lone Pine Resources and also in the ‘70s around the Cameron Hills area, has the Minister, in his discussions with his colleagues, seen any type of disturbance with the land around the areas that had been hydraulically fracked?
