Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The tolls were meant to pay for the bridge over the life of the bridge, being 35 years. It will be charged against trucks carrying freight north. There would be no toll on trucks going south but only coming north. That was the idea behind that toll. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, my other concern or same type of concern is those costs being multiplied as the products such as milk is brought up by truck then added to the fuel costs by flying that product farther north. Has the department looked at the spin-off and the multiplier factor of that toll to the cost of the public of the Northwest Territories?

The information that I have seen would indicate that on a B-Train it would be about $250. When you break that down to a four litre jug of milk, it would be a fraction of a cent. Cumulatively, it wouldn’t amount to much, but certainly when stores don’t have to bring in their refrigeration trucks and store lots of goods for the few weeks during the spring breakup, the cost to consumers really shouldn’t be much of a factor. Thank you.

We are fully intent on the project being complete in the fall of 2012. I wouldn’t speculate on it happening any other way. I think that is the intent. We are going to try to ensure that the project is complete and traffic is moving across that bridge in the fall of 2012. That is our game plan and we are going to try to stick to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my colleague’s comments and questions on fracking yesterday with some questions for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I would like to recognize the controversial aspects and potentially severe impacts of fracking. We need to take proactive steps to become informed ourselves and educate our citizens towards making the right decisions. First, of course, we need the facts. Will the Minister commit to getting departmental research underway on the issues involving fracking and supplying information to committees for their review? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That work is currently underway. I would suspect early in the new year that will in fact take place. Thank you.

This Legislature needs to be informed, but our citizens also need to be prepared to participate effectively in any reviews and assessments. We need that information early on so citizens can digest and debate to be ready for public reviews. Will the Minister commit to getting information materials out to our public, perhaps in partnership with non-government organizations, presenting the variety of views that exist out there so that good debate and wise decisions can be made? Thank you.

The Department of ITI will be working in concert with my colleague Minister Miltenberger at ENR to develop that plan as we move forward, get the information to committee and hand it out to the public as well. The Member can look forward to us working collaboratively with Members and committee on moving this effort forward so that people are better educated about what fracking is. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate the Minister’s commitment there. I want to note that Paramount is already using fracking in the

Northwest Territories, apparently without any requirement for environmental review of this controversial technology. Further, the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board is not commenting on the use of fracking and says it falls under the jurisdiction of the National Energy Board. The National Energy Board says they can’t comment because of confidentiality agreements.

What’s going on here, Mr. Minister? Can the Minister inform the Assembly whether fracking is currently underway in the Northwest Territories, and if not, will he commit to getting back to us with this accurate information? Thank you.

Certainly we will take the Member’s concerns seriously. Right now the regulatory process is not in the hands of the Government of the Northwest Territories; it rests with another body. After we conclude negotiations on devolution, responsibility for managing our lands, waters and resources will rest with the Government of the Northwest Territories, at which time we can take every step to ensure that we know what is happening there. I will certainly get back to the Member as to the current disposition of the episode that he is concerned with in Cameron Hills. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

I do point out that this government spends tens of millions of dollars on areas that we have no mandate in. In terms of exploiting resources, I’m hoping we would do the same for protecting our citizens.

So my final question to the Minister is: How is it that fracking can happen in the NWT without going through the environmental assessment process? I think that’s a valid question for a government to be asking on behalf of its citizens. Thank you.

Again, I will work with my colleague Minister Miltenberger and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to get a response to Mr. Bromley’s question. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just a follow-up question to my statement this morning in terms of congratulating the leaders of the various communities that were elected to local governments. I just wanted to follow up in terms of where this government might be going in trying to build a relationship with First Nations. My question is directed to the Premier, whether the Premier would more likely consider perhaps continuing on at

least the principle of our working relationship with First Nations by perhaps considering this Northern Leadership Forum that was undertaken in the last Assembly. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Premier, Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are committed to reaching out to Aboriginal governments to develop a working relationship or a better working relationship, and right now we are following up to the Detah meeting and have had a number of meetings and phone calls with all of the Aboriginal government leaders. We’re also following up, trying to do bilateral meetings with each of the Aboriginal governments in order to have a follow-up meeting.

As a government we’re developing what we’re calling an Aboriginal Government Engagement Strategy and as part of that we’ll decide whether we’ll continue the Northern Leaders Forum process that was introduced in the 16

th

Assembly and we

expect to be making a decision on those things early in the new year. Thank you.

I’d like to thank the Premier for giving us an update in terms of where things are at in government relations with First Nations. Another major question related to this initiative is to understand that First Nations issues have figured prominently in the courts in Canada and one of them is in northern Ontario. Recently the Prime Minister had committed to First Nations that there will be a meeting with the Prime Minister and First Nations leaders sometime in January. I want to know if the Premier would be involved with that and perhaps what role the GNWT will play.

Right now, as I understand, it’s primarily between the Prime Minister and the Assembly of First Nations and their leadership. I’m not sure exactly how the meeting will be structured. I have written to the Prime Minister in follow-up to our phone call requesting a meeting with him. I’m also planning and we’re trying to set up a phone call with Minister Duncan. I have been texting with the grand chief of the Dene Nation who has been involved in the discussions along with the grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations to see how we can work together. So we expect to be meeting with him sometime before Christmas. So I expect that we’ll have a fairly good idea of what role we can play within the next week or so. Thank you.

The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday in my Member’s statement I talked about the cost of home heating oil, diesel and gasoline at

the pumps in the Northwest Territories. I’m going to direct my questions to the Minister of Justice, who I believe is responsible for consumer protection. I’ll just repeat a little bit from yesterday.

The Competition Bureau has commissioned studies of the relationship of crude oil prices to retail and wholesale gasoline prices. These studies have found that gasoline prices generally do track crude prices, but there can be a delay of up to two months before decreases or increases of crude oil prices are passed along to the consumers. At the same time some of these studies found that variations in crude oil prices are only one of the factors in influencing retail prices.

My question first of all is: Does this government have any role in protecting consumers for this unregulated but very essential commodity? Thank you.