Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of ITI about the process of devolution, the role of the National Energy Board. I know we will have some working relationship to them and I want to know about the oil and gas activity specifically to the hydraulic fracking in the Sahtu, that the National Energy Board will work with us, or actually they’ll be our employees in regard to enforcing the regulations of this drilling program.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. After April 1st of next year, the NEB will still have regulatory authority in the ISR offshore in regard to pipeline development and pipeline operations in the Northwest Territories. Currently our government is having a discussion and some dialogue on how best to approach the regulatory aspect after April 1st of next year and those discussions will continue. Thank you.
Certainly. With the transition of the National Energy Board having a new employer in regard to the enforcement of the oil and gas exploration, would the National Energy Board be obligated, then, to follow the guidelines that the Northwest Territories Assembly as a whole would want to enforce in regard to the operations such as the hydraulic fracking method?
Thank you. A lot of this remains undecided today. However, my belief is that we need to be making decisions here in the Northwest Territories related to the development of our own resources and we’ll see where we get with the discussions.
Thank you. As part of devolution and of devolving powers to the Northwest Territories, will some of the discussion look at the possibility of the Northwest Territories having its own type of a National Energy Board regulator, legislation, something that would be built and be worked on by the northern people and enforced by the northern people?
Thank you. Again, a lot of this has yet to be determined, and as we march toward April 1st, this will all come into much greater clarity.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The whole apparatus of the National Energy Board will be mostly under the Minister, so how can the Assembly itself guess that we can go through that discussion, because the policies and the regulations would flow from the Minister on overseeing this new working relationship with the National Energy Board. The Assembly itself being part of the input to give advice on the regulations and policies to the hydraulic fracking that could possibly happen in the Sahtu.
We’re going to keep all of our options open, and again, I think this will certainly become much clearer as we get closer to April 1st next year.
