Robert Hawkins

As part of developing the Northwest Territories’ policy approach to hydraulic fracturing, representatives of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure joined a delegation led by the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment on a tour of the Bakken shale formation in Saskatchewan and North Dakota, between September 29th and October 4, 2013.

The delegation, made up of the Minister; Members of the Legislative Assembly; staff from the departments of Environment and Natural Resources, and Industry Tourism and Investment; the Northwest Territories Geoscience Office; the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Undoubtedly, I have no issue whatsoever in supporting this particular motion.

We must seize upon every single opportunity to help solve this problem. This is not the panacea for this issue, but yet it is moving the file forward. Enforcement of liquor laws is a necessity. We cannot miss any opportunity to do this. We must not get distracted by the fact that, yes, this is a new adventure that we must be heading into, but we must see it as truly an opportunity to do something for this particular problem.

Abuse of alcohol certainly has been well stated, well written and will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How much is left in the reserve to address all these deficiencies and would the Minister table publicly a list of all the deficiencies so we know what we’re dealing with? Thank you.

Thank you. There are a lot of deficiencies and I understand are still outstanding on this particular bridge. As such, that’s why I was asking for it publicly. I don’t have a copy, but I can certainly start with one of the deficiencies to enlighten him.

As I understand, right now the scour rock issue at the Deh Cho Bridge is still outstanding and I thought it was being addressed through a negotiated contract. Would the Minister be able to confirm if there was a negotiated contract to solve the scour rock problem and, as such, is it still in place? Because I certainly have seen not one but two...

Mr. Speaker, I think I’ve highlighted some of the reasons and I’m happy to repeat them again. I said that because the lender pulled the loan and the GNWT became saddled with it, I think we should be investigating exactly why that happened, what led up to that and what information caused such destruction and angst for them to do that.

What more information is the Minister looking at or need to look at in order to say, wait a minute, something happened here, we almost paralyzed the government with this situation. As such, once again I ask the Minister, would he be willing to launch an audit to...

It was my understanding that the former Minister promised this and other people have been promising that we will have an independent audit. Quite frankly, if the Department of Transportation is monitoring themselves, we might as well just surrender to the results already because it does seem somewhat biased. I’m not trying to be mean here today, but self-evaluation really only works well when you’re, I guess, meditating.

I ask once again for the taxpayer, for the people in the Northwest Territories, would the Minister look at launching an independent audit that had teeth so we could truly...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The North Dakota Association of Oil and Gas Producing Counties noted its generally positive experiences with its industry partners. A representative of the Three Affiliated Tribes Tribal Economic Development Office, or TERO, shared his experience that oil companies’ priority is to make a profit, but they are generally willing to work with communities and governments. Statoil emphasized its commitment to collaboration and open communication with stakeholders. North Dakota officials recommended that governments work closely with industry to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to be speaking on the Deh Cho Bridge and the need for an independent audit and a process regarding a number of the problems.

All I can say is, if FDR was alive today, I’m sure he would describe the Deh Cho Bridge as this: The Deh Cho Bridge is a project that will live in infamy. Why? Because it has been cursed with problems. I may describe it as a ship of our great territory. I would say that it appears to have been launched without the bottle being broken, cursed from the beginning.

We all know that the 1,045 metre structure was supposed to be the pride of...

Mr. Speaker, certainly I will be supporting the motion. I was proud to be able to second this.

Quite often, we often think of education as such an amazing thing and here we have an educational renewal document that many educators are telling me that they’re concerned about the lack of input. If we want to do it right, we have to make sure we get off on a good foot. Any home builder will tell you that you can’t construct a good, sound, quality home without building a solid foundation. I consider this 10-year plan, this renewal, should be a solid foundation, one that is so firm and so strong it...

Thank you. So, then, there are deficiencies. Okay, so how much was the negotiated contract negotiated for with the folks in Fort Providence in partnership with Ruskin? Thank you.