Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the mover, Mr. Bromley, and the seconder, Mr. Nadli, for allowing this discussion to occur today here.
Given almost two pages of whereas within this motion it’s a bit hard to agree with all the points, but it’s easy to agree with some of the points raised, but I’ll try to attempt to take more of a reasonable step back from the specifics of the motion and evaluate the direction we’re asking this government to take and the overall message we’re trying to get through industry.
In preparation for today, I thought bringing back my experiences in science as a chemist, I wanted to maybe start quoting from mini scriptures of scientific journals and everything else, but I thought you know what, I don’t want to bore everyone to death here. So all I can tell you is what I know is
that science is riddled with many unknowns and I just want to leave it at that.
I did think I was going to take more of a perspective maybe as a hockey fan to bring more of a hockey analogy to my argument today, but the Habs didn’t win. So we’ll use that another day. Looks like we’ve got a lot of Hab fans here.
Which leads me to my final area to try to bring some reasonableness and that is that of a reasonable man’s perspective. So what does that really mean? There’s nothing hidden in the term. I think one has to look at fracking in a more fair and reasonable way and really what’s best for everyone involved. Being in health care for almost 22 years in the North and sitting for almost three years as a deputy chair on Social Programs committee, it has given me a unique perspective on the state of the social network here in the Northwest Territories. I can tell you that as much as I like to hear how great our health care system is, it does show many signs of stress and opportunity, and like the saying goes, the wheels on the bus have to go round and round. So does the need for proper funding for these social wheels to turn. So, we need to ask ourselves, how do we fund these health care dollars, poverty initiatives, income support, medical travel, job training, jobs themselves? I don’t think these entities self-fund and I can tell you that many around this table know they don’t as well.
So the reasonable man must look at the bigger picture to this motion’s ask. What is industry thinking when they’re listening to us here today? So when the industries have a choice in making an attempt for an investment to create prosperity in the North and to create hope for the people of the North, we as legislators are now asking to create barriers and almost a wall of worry. So we need to ask ourselves, what are we doing to ensure our future in doing that?
We’ve been given, recently, some newfound powers with devolution and we haven’t even taken this new car out for a spin yet and we’re asking, with today’s motion, to put it back in the garage. I say let’s manage our risks as being prescribed in our regulations, let’s set the rules and let’s enforce the rules.
With that, I just want to deviate a little bit here because it was just brought to our attention and it’s recently new. This is a CBC special report as of this morning of June 4th and this is an interview with
CBC interviewer Loren McGinnis and Minister Ramsay here. Again, I just got the transcripts, but what we’re seeing in here is that we’re still setting the rules and we’re still learning and we’re doing so in good faith, and I’d like to quote, if I can, from some of the transcripts very quickly. Mr. Ramsay is quoted, “We fully intend to consult all stakeholders in the development of regulations.” Another quote is: “It’s very important that people get a say and I
think that’s the most important thing here, is stakeholders, the public.” Finally, “We haven’t even announced yet how the consultation will work, the timelines.”
So it’s clear we’re still working on the rules, but like I said earlier, let’s set the rules and let’s enforce them. I believe we can move forward and develop our fracking initiatives safely. I also firmly believe we can reasonably navigate all fracking development reasonably and in compliance with the strict rules this government has said they would do. In the end, we have to give government a chance to make this work before we throw this whole initiative under the bus.
I would like to end by saying, I care about my environment, like everyone in this room. With our economy being so fragile, to balance questionable risk versus economics is not putting prosperity at any cost, it’s saying let’s be reasonable with this motion today. Let’s be very careful what we’re asking for.
Again, I do respect and I want to thank my colleagues for all their opinions and points of view in this debate today, and if it’s not clear by now, I have a hard time supporting this motion today. Thank you.