Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a very big topic we are discussing today. I thank the mover and the seconder for this motion to come forward and discuss some of the hydraulic fracturing in the Northwest Territories.
In November 2012 the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure did a report to this House and indicated there were some recommendations we wanted done. We wanted some baseline studies to be accomplished. We wanted to adopt standards throughout the whole phase of the implementation, the monitoring of the land and waters, the monitoring of greenhouse gases. Public consultation was one of our recommendations, a thorough public consultation. These were the recommendations that came out of that and that’s what we’re debating here today. We have a motion to take a pause until we complete public consultation, yet we have, on June 2nd , the
Minister of ITI saying we’re going to introduce hydraulic fracturing regulations and we will do full public consultation at that time.
So I guess the debate that is being done here is what kind of public consultation will be done during that regulatory process, and the public consultation in getting the information out to the general public.
So, we look at what will be the impact of this motion. I guess one of the concerns that I have with this motion is the message that is being sent out throughout the country and to industry, is Hay… I say Hay River, sorry. The Northwest Territories. I mean, I’m a Hay River MLA. I apologize. Is the Northwest Territories open to the concept of hydraulic fracturing, open to the concept of the development of oil and gas? I think that I support that concept.
Obviously, I support that concept with some strict guidelines, regulations in place that the government has indicated that they’re willing to do and willing to have public consultation on that. I think one of the things that some of the Members have talked about is identifying the chemicals. These organizations are all part of CAPP, which indicate they have public access to the chemicals that are done.
I guess at this point I will not be supporting the motion, because I think the public consultation will happen in this hydraulic fracturing regulation review and that’s where the public is going to get their input, and we’re going to be able to get regulation put on what we are going to do in the Northwest Territories to control what happens in this industry. I am concerned that this motion will send out a message to industry that we are stopping development in the Northwest Territories, we are putting a moratorium… The word “moratorium” was taken out of here. I appreciate that. But the message still is that we’re taking a pause, that we’re not going to accept applications at this time, and I’m concerned that this is going to have
implications for the economy in the Northwest Territories for the future generations of the Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.