Merci, Monsieur le President. It’s time for another statement on the millions of dollars of preventable liabilities our government will assume from our mismanagement of the Cameron Hills gas field owned by Strategic Oil and Gas.
The field consists of 50 well sites, winter roads, summer allterrain vehicle trails, a gas and oil gathering system, a central battery, temporary and permanent camps, airstrips, borrow pits, bridges, and a pipeline into Alberta. A class A water licence and a type A landuse permit cover its activities in the NWT. Other authorizations include 15 production licences and 11 of the infamous significant discovery licences in the Northwest Territories.
Production stopped in February 2011. It went into creditor protection in 2019, and finally into receivership in 2020. We accepted this site under the Devolution Agreement without full financial security and without an approved closure plan.
Despite a mandate commitment from the 18th Assembly to develop "a sound financial security system to prevent public liabilities", nothing was done to prevent this.
As far as I can tell, the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board gave conditional approval to the fourth version of the closure and reclamation plan in January 2020, and it is still waiting for the significant improvements to be done before final approval. Once the amended plan is accepted, a full reclamation cost estimate will be conducted and financial security will finally be recalculated, although I don't think there is any money to cover it. Surely our government must have some idea by now of how many millions of dollars this mess will cost NWT taxpayers.
The last inspection report by the Department of Lands dated January 2021 shows unacceptable conditions at the site. Emergency spills were required to prevent larger unauthorized releases from the camp sewage lagoon and the surface runoff retention pond.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member for Monfwi.
