Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I want to follow up on the questions from my colleague to my right, but also from my Member’s statement. I want to ask the Minister some questions about fracking and why we are not consulting.
So, my first question to the Minister is exactly that. Why is the Minister avoiding doing a consultation process on the practice and the process of fracking? The Yukon did it and it took them a year, I think, to do a thorough evaluation of the process to do consultation in all parts of their territory. Why is the Minister avoiding doing that in our territory? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members know, the Government of the Northwest Territories inherited filing requirements from the National Energy Board when we took over responsibility for oil and gas activity onshore here in the Northwest Territories. We have strong regulations and rules in place to protect the environment. We’ve heard from the standing committee. We’ve heard from the public. We’re halfway through the process that we have today embarked upon. We heard about water quality, air quality and disclosure. We’re addressing these things, Mr. Speaker. I know the Member has said, while there’s a lull in the activity here we should be asking different questions. What we should be doing is trying to ensure that we have strong rules in place here, strong regulations in place here, and it is about managing the opportunity and the resource and also protecting the environment. With strong rules and regulations in place, we believe we can protect the environment and develop the resources we have in place here in the NWT.
The Minister is extremely confident. The Minister says he’s heard from the public. I think what he’s heard from the public is not what other people are hearing from the public, because I’m hearing many people in the public who are not sure that this is the right way to go.
The Minister yesterday said, “We are confident that regions like the Sahtu and the Beaufort-Delta can realize the benefits of their oil and gas resources without harm to the environment.” The Minister may be sure, but there are an awful lot of residents of the NWT who are not sure, and I think the Minister is presuming. Because we’ve inherited regulations and the responsibility for the NEB in our territory because of devolution, responsibility does not mean that we should absolutely go ahead and do it. We still need to ask that question.
So, I want to say to the Minister, if you are so confident that this can go forward without any harm, the public is not. So, what are you as a Minister doing to give the public that confidence? Thank you.
It’s too bad I can’t ask questions to the Member because I’d like to ask the Member where she found out that I was quoted as saying that at any cost we want development in the central Mackenzie Valley. I never said that, so I want to get that on the record as well.
We have a process in place and we are going to continue that process. We haven’t made any decisions, and some of the rhetoric that’s coming from some of the Regular Members, it would say that we have made decisions. We haven’t made any decisions and I want to be clear on that.
We’ve given ourselves more time. We’ll take as much time as we need. We’ve got until the end of August, and we will take as much time as we need to ensure that we have the strongest rules in place, the best practices in place here in the Northwest Territories so that we can manage the resources that we have and the opportunities that we have here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
I did not attribute the “at any cost” to the Minister. That’s my personal opinion that that is the Minister’s belief because that’s what I see from his actions and from his words that he speaks.
The Minister says there’s a process in place. Because we have a process does not mean that we have discussed and consulted about the fracking practice itself. We have never had that conversation. It needs to be had. Because we have said we are going to frack, now we are going to figure out how to do it? That does not allay the fears of the public.
So again to the Minister, I want to ask him what is he doing to give the public confidence that fracking is, as he says, such a wonderful process? Thank you.
Again, the rhetoric doesn’t really do anything to the discussion that we’re having today. We are involved in a process. We’re going to see ourselves through that process. We believe that we can manage the resource, we can manage the environmental concern and I’m not the only Minister in this government. We’ve got a Cabinet on this side of the House. I’m not making decisions unilaterally. We are moving forward and we are going to be looking at the environmental concerns, we’re going to be looking at the opportunities, the economic opportunities.
I’ll say it again, we haven’t made a decision yet. We have not made a decision. We’re talking about a process that isn’t even halfway through its operation. We’ve given ourselves now until the end of August. We’re going to have a discussion at the end of this process with the Regular Members. We’re having a discussion with industry, we’re consulting and I thought I heard the Member comment that we’re not consulting. We’re consulting with the Aboriginal governments across the Northwest Territories, Members, the public. We’re doing everything we can and we’ve given ourselves some more time, so I’m wondering what exactly the Member wants. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d be happy to take an hour and tell the Minister what I want. However, the Minister says that there has been no decision, but the Minister keeps referencing that there’s a process in place and that process is basically looking at how to do fracking, not if. That conversation, again, as I’ve said, has never been had. There are studies which say that the risks of fracking cannot be managed. We haven’t had that conversation in public. There have been conversations behind closed doors. The Minister is asking about regulations of any and all organizations who will talk to them, but that precludes or that assumes that fracking will occur.
So, I again ask the Minister what is he doing to make sure that the public is confident that fracking is a good process and that it’s the way to go without discussing the actual why should we frack with the public? Thank you.
We need to know what we’re getting ourselves into. We’ve spent the last four years, we’ve had trips to the Bakken, to Calgary with Members of the standing committee. We are trying to learn and trying to understand, and as I mentioned in response to some questions yesterday, not every basin is the same. The water quantity that would be required to frack a well in the central Mackenzie Valley is not the same as the Bakken. The geology is much different. We have to understand all of these things. It’s easy to make a decision and just cast an opportunity aside. We want to study that opportunity. We want to ensure we know what we’re talking about, and we’re going to see the process through to the end and we’re going to be happy to sit down with the Regular Members at the end of this process to discuss with them the next steps forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Time for oral questions has expired. Item 9, written questions. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With great pleasure personally, I ask this Assembly for unanimous consent to return to item number 8, oral questions, on our standing orders of the day. Thank you.
---Unanimous consent denied
