Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I joined the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and colleagues in a recent tour of the fracking fields of Saskatchewan and North Dakota. We were joined by leaders from the Sahtu, as well as ITI and ENR staff. We learned a lot and I am pleased that there is much interest from the public and the media in hearing our impressions.
I was invited, this past weekend, to speak to a local chapter of the Council of Canadians and a group of concerned citizens during an organized global day event of protest against fracking. Titled “Global Frack-Down,” the event called for a ban on fracking because people think it is inherently unsafe. It included gatherings of concerned citizens in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, and 26 states and many communities across Canada. Obviously, people who have questions on fracking should not feel alone. Many countries and regions have banned the practice.
Fracking is not banned in North Dakota. Our tour was busy and informative, with meetings from morning until night with industry, regulators, legislators and First Nations. It was also very one-sided, with little on the environmental and social side. Granted, it takes specific direction to find and hear such perspectives.
Consider these examples: Though North Dakota has over 800 open produced water pits, we did not visit one. We did not hear about them, nor did we learn about the 25 percent that overflowed, with an abnormally high rainfall event this spring.
We visited the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. The leaders were hospitable and informative, but there was no mention of the fracked well blowout on the reserve last winter which sprayed oil and unknown fracking chemicals into the air and into Lake Sakakawea, part of the Missouri River.
Local media and even inspectors covered that one up. Nobody wanted to get in the way of the oil companies who are making billions, but also paying the reservation $25 million per month and climbing.
Finally, while on our tour, one of the largest ever oil spills on U.S. soil was happening in the area and no one mentioned a thing about it.
I would like to get into my concluding paragraph, so I seek unanimous consent from my colleagues to complete my statement. Mahsi.
---Unanimous consent granted