Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. With devolution came new responsibilities, and one of those new responsibilities was for oil and gas. We’ve been talking a lot about it in the last little while and I’d like to ask some questions of the Minister of ITI around his job as the regulator.
We’ve inherited that job from the federal government with devolution. I’ve found when dealing with the environmental assessment at Giant Mine, which the Minister responsible was the Minister of ENR, that they had set up a system within that department which separated the Minister from the job that the members of the department were doing as a proponent.
So I’d like to first ask the Minister of ITI, what has he done within department of ITI to ensure that there is the same sort of division between the regulator and the department? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We set up an office of the oil and gas regulator separate from the ITI department. It’s in a different building. It’s a stand-alone operation. I’ve delegated the day-to-day authority in most cases to the chief conservation officer, who is the executive director of our oil and gas regulator office, and we’ve set it up in a way that allows me to continue to do my job as Minister and also be the regulator. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that. So, the Minister has delegated his authority as regulator and yet he still references himself as regulator. So I’m struggling to understand, and I think the public is probably wanting to know, how does the Minister call himself a regulator and yet delegate the authority to someone within his department well within the oil and gas department section of his department.
So, how does he reconcile that he is the regulator but he has delegated that authority as well? Thank you.
The Minister of ITI has been designated the regulator under the Oil and Gas Operations Act, and that is legislation and that’s where I’m identified as a regulator and, again, delegated those authorities to the executive director who is also the chief conservation officer in our oil and gas regulating office. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. Still not that clear, but I’ll give up on that one. I think it’s a matter of language.
So, I’d like to know, first of all – not first, this is my third question, I’d like to know from the Minister, when issues come before the House or they come before a committee, Members very often want to have some input into the issue, and very often it has to do with an issue where the Minister and/or his delegate will have to rule on a decision.
So, I’d like to know if the Minister, as regulator, or basically him as a regulator, if he can accept input from Regular Members on an issue related to oil and gas, and if he can, how would that occur? Thank you.
On April 1st, of course, we inherited the regulatory responsibility from the federal government. There are processes in place and we have to respect the processes and not fetter the regulator, not fetter the process that’s in place through legislation, legislation that we’ve inherited from the federal government.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks Mr. Speaker. I didn’t really hear an answer there so I’ll just give up on that one as well.
This is a new process, as the Minister has said, and any time there’s a new process I am a firm believer in doing an evaluation of it. So, I’d like to know if the Minister has plans at this point, even though it’s early in the process, does he have plans to do an evaluation of how our role as regulator and our role as accepting input on issues is working, and when does he expect that that evaluation would occur? Thank you.
Thank you. The office of the oil and gas regulator here in the Northwest Territories hasn’t been overly busy. That’s not to say that we can’t take a look. We’ve only had the responsibility now for six months. I think after a year would be a good time to look back. I’m also looking forward, again, to getting in front of committee. I know we want to get in front of Regular Members with the executive director from our oil and gas regulating office, the deputy minister and myself to answer any questions that Members may have and I certainly look forward to doing that soon. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Colleagues, before we go on today, I’d like to welcome Rose Ann Snow and her sister May Inglanqasuk from the Beaufort-Delta. Welcome to the House today.
The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
