Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of ENR in regards to the environmental protection in working in the area of Sahtu in regards to the economic development that has happened there. I want to ask the Minister in regards to the work that needs to get up there in regards to environmental issues.
Has the Minister commissioned studies in regards to some of the environmental concerns that are coming up with the hydraulic fracking?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are still working on what we see as some needed improvements to fracking practices. That work is still working its way through the process. We’ve received some feedback from committee and we’re looking at bringing forward revisions reflecting the changes that were recommended as well as the fact that we are now going to be our own regulator.
We’ve laid out the Land Use and Sustainability Framework, which is a broad framing document with some very critical principles. We have money that we’ve allocated through the Environmental Research Fund to start doing baseline work on groundwater and wildlife, and we’ve had meetings with industry to make use of what they do on wildlife and groundwater monitoring that is project and site-specific that we want to make sure that we include in the work that we do so that we have as comprehensive amount of baseline data as possible. Thank you.
Thank you. Can the Minister inform the House and me as to when he expects an official policy, framework policy, to the work that he’s doing that would look at hydraulic fracking in the North?
As has been pointed out by the Minister of ITI, after April 1st we will be the regulator and he will be the Minister responsible. The NEB’s existing policies and guidelines will stay in effect and the work that we are doing, in terms of reviewing fracking as a government that we’ve been looking at now for a number of months, will come forward sometime after April, that will look at improving upon what is currently there. But in the meantime, the National Energy Board policies and filing guidelines are what will be the policies of the day. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, one of the interesting things that the Minister pointed out was baseline studies in the Sahtu because of the ecological sensitivity of our area. Are some of the baseline studies near completion, and I take it that that’s going to be used as guidelines for the policy that could come ahead in the next couple of months or so. Are the specific baseline studies being worked on and computed as we go through this whole new exploration on hydraulic fracking?
Regional baseline studies are going to take some time. We have initiated that process. We are looking, as I had indicated as well, as trying to build off and use the work that has been done with industry, the work that they’ve done on wildlife and groundwater, and we’re going to continue to invest money over the coming years to get that baseline work complete.
In the meantime, the work on fracking that has been done, that we’ve initiated a couple of months ago, is going to continue and we expect early in April to be able to bring that forward for some public feedback as well as industry feedback. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the public feedback, I’m wondering if the Minister would consider working with the Department of ITI to look at possibly a summit for the elders for the traditional knowledge and information that they have on the land. That’s good feedback with the elders’ knowledge in developing future policies and guidelines to the hydraulic fracking work that’s being done in the Sahtu.
As the Minister of Lands and Minister of ITI have pointed out before this House, because their budgets were reviewed, the development assessment process we are putting in place, now that we’re going to be the regulator after April 1st, sees an integrated cooperative approach between the two departments chaired by the Minister of Lands. We will do the work on fracking and we will make sure that when it is put out for public feedback, we will consider the Member’s suggestion. We’ll be looking for feedback from people across the North but especially where it’s impacting in the Sahtu as well as the industry. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
