Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like my colleague Mr. Bromley, I too wish to speak about fracking and concerns that continue to march on. We’ve recently seen the uprising and the protest in New Brunswick. Even across the three territories, we saw marching of Northerners expressing their views. I always welcome the views, both those I obviously support and, of course, I always welcome the views that I don’t necessarily agree with. It gives me a chance to learn all sides of the equation.
Although I have yet to find the point where I make up my mind whether I fully will support hydraulic fracturing or not, I will tell you that this government needs to ensure that we develop good policy that enshrines every bit of protection to Northerners and northern landscapes into regulation long before we let any more fracking happen.
We must not march forward with the momentum of opportunity and forget about what damage we can cause. Things to think about are well integrity, from the design to the construction to the testing. We must make sure these things are considered in the public policy design. Chemicals going in... We’ve often heard about the registry that talks about making sure that everyone knows what chemicals are used. Often you’ll hear the saying from the industry, “Well geez, that’s everything in the kitchen that you’ll find underneath your sink.” Well, I can tell you, I’m not going to drink some of the stuff under my kitchen sink, and I can tell you most Northerners will be skeptical about how safe it is as well.
Fracking fluid can come in many forms, be it water, oil or gas, but whatever fracking mechanism we choose to use as Northerners, if we choose this to happen, let it be chosen by Northerners, not by the industry.
When we were in Saskatchewan on the fracking tour, we heard from their chemical engineers about making sure that you’re well aware that it’s not just the chemicals that come out of the ground that are pumped out, but how do they change over time; time, pressure and heat. These are all consequential things that happen that not a lot of people put a lot of concern behind. Quality of water, quantity of water, full disclosure, things like safe disposal of all chemicals. There cannot ever be enough monitoring of these types of things.
Although time is marching on for my Member’s statement today, I will tell you time should not march ahead of us on this particular problem. We must heed the words given by Stephen Covey, which is, “Let us begin with the end in mind.” So if Northerners want fracking, Northerners accept fracking, make sure it happens the way Northerners want it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
