Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a follow-up to my Member’s statement, as well, I would like to ask the Minister, will the department open up the requests from communities to have the Department of ITI travel to the communities on the regulations for horizontal hydraulic fracturing? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve had some communities that we have had public engagement sessions in. If the Member has a community that we haven’t been in that he believes would benefit from us going to the community to talk about the draft regulations, we could entertain a letter from the community and take things from there. Like I said, we have some more time and if we get requests from communities, we will take that into consideration. Thank you.
Out of all eight communities in the Beaufort-Delta region, they only travelled to Inuvik, so I welcome and invite the Minister to all three of my communities if that’s possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. That was more just a comment but, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand the Member’s concern. Again, if the leadership in those communities and the Member feel strongly that they would like to see us in those communities, whether we can get to all three or not, we will try our best. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I mentioned, hydraulic fracturing is very new to this territory. I would like to ask the Minister, is the department open to having workshops in our communities on horizontal hydraulic fracturing as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We’ve had a number of workshops in the Sahtu, in the riding where we have seen activity. Whether we would move workshops outside of the Sahtu remains to be seen. But again, I think, given the fact that we do have this world-class opportunity in the central Mackenzie Valley, looking at opportunities to get into communities to discuss hydraulic fracturing could be very beneficial. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A number of years back there was a big concern on caribou in the Northwest Territories and the department at the time, I believe it was ENR, held a caribou summit.
I would like to ask the Minister, will the Minister hold a hydraulic fracturing summit here in the capital and invite all the communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We are going one step further than that. We are getting out across the Northwest Territories. We are meeting with people in their home communities and we will continue to do that. As I mentioned to the Member, if there are communities that want to see us show up on their doorstep to talk about these draft regulations, that is something we will consider. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
