Thank you, Madam Chair. The Department of ENR is going to be challenged with some significant changes in the Northwest Territories if some of the proven resources in the Sahtu come to fruition. As indicated in his opening statement, they’re preparing for the increased oil and gas exploration development in the Sahtu, and one of our greatest resources that sustains us today is the water. The Minister indicated they are completing a transboundary negotiation water agreement with Alberta and, of course, Alberta is also ramping up and they’re looking at using water for hydroelectric energy, and the Alberta tar sands is also involved in their operations with the water. It all flows up to the Slave River and to the Great Slave Lake and down the Mackenzie River. We have the Norman Wells oilfields that have been in operation for some time. I wanted to ask the Minister about a hearing to the Sahtu land claim in

regard to keeping the quality of water as a priority in our government and that there’s not to be any alteration of the quality of water in our area of our settled land claims. There could be other areas or land claims that have that type of specific agreement that was negotiated.

So I’m going to ask the Minister about those areas where there is a high interest in the oil and gas, especially with the new technology in the North of fracking, and ensuring our people that our water is of the utmost, and the integrity of our water is kept in place. That we’re going to do everything within the means of this legislation so that the oil companies are kept on notice when they begin, and if they begin a fracking operation, that we’re going to be okay. In 50 years we’re still going to be okay, or even 75 years.

So I’m very interested in that type of work and that the government will be looking at to provide some comfort to the people of the significant environmental impacts that are going to happen with development, which could certainly change the Northwest Territories economic powerhouse in the North and how things will be looked at in the Northwest Territories in regard to the new interests of the oil and gas developments in the Sahtu region.

I’m very happy to see the Wildlife Act being put back on our tables, to have some discussion and look at how this Wildlife Act can be discussed where we would see a new Wildlife Act by the end of this session. We certainly came close to it in the 16th Assembly and I was heartbroken at not having

it passed at that time. This Wildlife Act is coming into play and it is very important to the people in the communities, people in the North and, specifically, people in the regions where they have Aboriginal and treaty rights. This Wildlife Act hasn’t been changed since I think I was in Grade 11 or 12 when they had the Wildlife Act, so there are lots of changes that have taken place since that time. I’m not that old, but I think that’s a significant amount of appreciation to the Minister for his patience and people who have made contributions all over the North to this Wildlife Act.

It’s very sensitive because how do we work together on it. People use the animals to feed themselves and look after themselves. So we had to be very patient and sometimes I’m not. Sometimes I just want to get these things done and we have to learn to work together and live together and educate each other. I think there’s enough will here, I hope there’s enough will that this Wildlife Act will come to the floor and we’ll vote on it so the department can get to work and modernize our Wildlife Act. I want to thank the Minister and staff for the due diligence that it had to do to get this piece of legislation through the discussions. It will

certainly be coming to our table for further discussion so we can see this being implemented.

The last point I want to make is with the energy initiatives. Certainly we saw a worst-case scenario happen in Norman Wells this past winter and I thank the governments for responding in a very professional and speedy way in the turn of events that happened. The situation of having their gas shut off and resources had to be put in place to ensure people and all safety mechanisms were going to be taken care of, such as evacuating if they had to and looking at other issues that the government was facing, especially with MACA and the Town of Norman Wells. I bring that up because the importance of an energy initiative in the Sahtu, especially for the town of Norman Wells, they had people go through some of that experience of the last 24 hours when they were going through that. So I look forward to some initiatives that could be out of this world, can be maybe thought of as thinking outside the box that we had some good discussions on. How can we reduce the carbon emissions?

Looking at ways that we can help our communities reduce the cost of living, and I think we’re going to have some discussion in that area. We talked about one far-out idea as to put woodstoves in people’s houses. That would do so much good. That’s such a unique concept that we could really help our people on many fronts. I hope the government is open to that type of suggestion. Our people in the Sahtu live off the land and I think a lot of people in the North like to go out and have that opportunity to take their children – it’s educational, the fresh air, get active – and if they had an opportunity to have a woodstove that would cut down on their diesel or their natural gas or whatever, they would use it. It would help a lot. So I look forward to those types of energy initiatives that ENR can look at in the future and have some discussion on that.

Those are all my comments for the Minister. Thank you.