Thank you, Madam Chair. We’ve had a number of initiatives that we’ve done in the Sahtu. Going back to last fall, we had the readiness session. When the Members asked me questions here in the House just recently about getting a post-mortem on this winter’s operations in the spring, that’s something I feel the department can certainly help out with, and I know Transportation’s involved in that as well, so we can look forward to that. We’ve also got this business development officer that you see in the budget at ITI.
Our staff have done a great deal in trying to coordinate, as the Member knows, all the activity that is taking place in the Sahtu. It’s been challenging for our staff there and they’ve been stretched pretty good over the winter months, especially with the activity that’s going on there.
We’ve also completed a study to estimate the potential impact of shale oil and gas development in the Northwest Territories, and we’re continuing to work with ENR and Health and Social Services to prepare an information package for the Executive Council on the impacts of shale oil and gas development in the NWT. We are also working with ENR on the response to the SCEDI’s report on fracking.
I mentioned earlier, we are going to try and plan another coordinated visit to a multi-staged fracking well. Whether it’s in southeastern Saskatchewan or in North Dakota remains to be seen, but we are going to make that happen sometime in April.
The Member can look forward to ITI’s continued support in his region. We also are the conduit to the
other Ministers and we try to keep the other Ministers updated as to what’s going on in the Sahtu. You can see throughout the budget that government, whether it’s Education, Culture and Employment or other departments, are taking notice of what’s happening in the Sahtu and we’re going to need to make decisions relative to what is happening there. We continue to do that and I thank the Member for his question and his support.