Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement on fracking, as well I have questions for the Minister of ITI. The first question today is, I know the Minister has indicated they’re continuing to do some consultation with the public. Has the department changed any of its presentation? Have they started to include more information on actual hydraulic fracturing and what it does, what it is? Because that’s been one of the questions we’ve been getting from people and the concerns of if we’re getting the information out to people. Not just the regulations, but are we now presenting that to the public? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, later today I’m going to table some information, and a lot of this information we do hand out at public meetings. We have included folks from ENR and there have been people attend meetings from Lands. They need to be there to help us answer any questions the public might have. A lot of this is an educational opportunity for the government to let people know about the technique, how it works, what the risks are and what the potential benefits are through these draft regulations.
These draft regulations, again, address areas of concern for Northerners, air quality and water quality management, and disclosure. We are going to do our best to ensure that we get this right so that the technique can be regulated here in the Northwest Territories to the best of our ability. Thank you.
I know they can’t go to all the communities, so I am wondering if the department is looking at another step in this process of consultation on hydraulic fracturing.
Is the department looking at any kind of conference or fracking charrette that we can have members who are interested to participate throughout the Northwest Territories come to a common area to have that discussion? Thank you.
Again, the process is playing itself out. We still have some communities that we need to get in and have our meetings. But at the end of that process, we are going to look at other opportunities to work with communities and educate people. I know that Member Yakeleya and I talked about a possible elders summit on hydraulic fracturing in the Sahtu. That is something that I think we could take a look at potentially having sometime. If there are opportunities to get into communities to help educate the public on hydraulic fracturing, we need to take that opportunity. We have some time here. Again, we need to ensure that we get this right.
My next question is the Minister was talking about the commitment of August. I am just wondering if the Minister will actually extend that to the next session period in September/October to make sure that the Regular Members have the opportunity over the summer to talk to their constituents and give that feedback in the September sitting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
With the added time, we are going to have the opportunity to get to assemblies so Members can get back to their constituencies to talk to people. We will come back here in August.
Again, if we need some more time, we are sitting again at the end of September, first week of October. We will have to get back in front of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure and Regular Members who want to attend that meeting. I would be happy to get that feedback, let the Regular Members know how the process went, what we heard and what the next steps are going to be. All of this is going to happen in due course. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am just wondering if the Minister could look into some of the opportunities that we could get some feedback from the general public. Maybe have a third party do a polling of some of the communities where they are not going in for public consultation to get some feedback. You know, whether you support fracking, if you require more information on it, just to get an indication of where the general public sits on those two topics. Thank you.
We hadn’t contemplated doing any polling. We are going to move forward with the plan that we have. If we need to make adjustments to that plan, we will do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
