Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment on the hydraulic fracturing in the Sahtu.
We have certainly heard Members from this side talk about going into the Bakken and seeing the activity. In North Dakota there were guns blazing toward hydraulic fracturing, so I want to ask the Minister in regards to what we saw in southeastern Saskatchewan and in North Dakota. What are some of the big differences between what is happening there and what potentially could happen in the Sahtu in regards to the jurisdictions and regulations?
Mr. Speaker, what we heard resoundingly in both southeastern Saskatchewan and North Dakota is that if people could do it all over again, they have the ability to plan and get ready for the development. That is what we have here. We have an opportunity. We have some time on our side. There is an application here to hopefully drill and frack two wells this coming winter here in the Northwest Territories.
I believe we can balance protecting the environment with advancing the economy here in the Northwest Territories and getting people the jobs and opportunities that they require. We have to have an economy here. It is going to be, one way or another, born out of resource extraction, whether it is oil and gas or whether it’s mining. We can plan and we can prepare ourselves. I think that is what we have certainly on our side here. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, certainly I said earlier, I was in Norman Wells over the weekend and people there are ready to go to work. They know what fracking could come to if we don’t do it properly. They know the work is there and they are willing to work and there’s excitement in the region. Certainly, there are issues that Members have talked about that we need to look at.
I want to ask the Minister in regards to doing it properly, doing it right and doing the best they can. We have an opportunity to work in this area here. Is the Minister working closely with the National Energy Board since they will become one of our key authorities on hydraulic fracking, that we can do it properly in the Sahtu with the National Energy Board?
Mr. Speaker, we probably have some of the most stringent regulatory requirements in North America here in the Northwest Territories. Nothing is going to happen unless it is regulated. Certainly after devolution, we will have a regulatory authority here in the Northwest Territories. It remains to be seen exactly how that is going to look. We continue to work towards that.
I want to give the Member and others the assurance that this is not going to be the Wild West with wells being drilled everywhere. We don’t have the issues that they have in North Dakota with a myriad of different land owners and land tenure arrangements. It is pretty straightforward here in the Northwest Territories when it comes to land ownership and opportunities. We can certainly scale and pace this development in the Sahtu according to our needs and the aspirations of the people of the Sahtu and the people of this territory. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I certainly appreciate the Members around this table here talking about hydraulic fracking in the Sahtu region. When I was in the Sahtu over the weekend, people in the Sahtu will determine if they will go ahead with hydraulic fracking or not. The people in the Sahtu will decide just what type of scale it will be at.
I want to follow up with a question from my colleague in terms of public engagement in hydraulic fracking for the people of the Sahtu on environmental, social and economics. Would the Minister work with Members on this side in regards to putting on a government public forum that we can have an all-out, good educational discussion on the impacts of hydraulic fracking?
Mr. Speaker, we can certainly look at that. I would be more than happy to discuss the opportunity with my colleague Minister Miltenberger of ENR and set out to get some more community workshops and exercises like that underway. One of the things I think will also go a long way to helping community members understand the process is – and I believe the Member saw a big display case which showed a well being drilled and then going out horizontally and explaining the process of hydraulic fracturing in layman’s terms – I think if we put that in the local language and also in English, and put these display cases showing the hydraulic fracturing process, put them in either the band hall or community hall in the communities in the Sahtu, I think this will go a long way. If you can visualize what it is, how it works and read it in your own language or English, I think that will go a long way to helping as well. We are looking at opportunities to partner with industry to help us get these display models in communities across the Sahtu. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister if he and I could go into the Sahtu this winter when Conoco is doing their testing of the hydraulic fracking, if he and I can go into the Sahtu and visit when they are doing their hydraulic fracking. At the same time, we could have a public meeting in the Sahtu in regards to this operation.
Mr. Speaker, there is probably about 75 million reasons why Conoco does drill those wells in the Sahtu this winter that I can come to the Sahtu with the Member. Certainly, I know industry has been open to getting visits to well sites, allowing people onto their working areas to show them the process, to show them how it works. I must say we had an opportunity near Weyburn, Saskatchewan, to get out on a well that was being fracked. I must say, it wasn’t very exciting. Some of the pressures were going up and the lights were flashing, but certainly the earth wasn’t shaking. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
