Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to talk about the potential of the resource development we have in the Northwest Territories. We have seen it in the Sahtu region. Like any new technology, there’s always risk. We deal with that every day, from the time that Henry Ford came out with the Model T car to the vehicles we deal with today. There’s always potential risk with the technology that’s coming out.

Do we have the tools to manage these risks? I believe so. Again, like the vehicles, we have the tools to manage those risks. There are risks going to be involved.

We also need more research over time to look at some of these new technologies and the risks that they could be.

In the Sahtu, last year we had experience with the fracking with two wells at Conoco. Surprisingly, I didn’t know that in the early ‘70s the first acid frack was in the Cameron Hills. Fracking has been happening since the ‘40s. Over a million wells have been fracked in the United States, and 175,000 in Canada, most in Alberta, Saskatchewan and BC.

Oil and gas development has changed over the years. It’s been well documented. Regulatory has been well defined over the years. They were looking at how to minimize the risks, tracking what’s happening in the oil and gas field. Strict regulations, strict liabilities are in place in oil and gas.

We in the Sahtu are in the driver’s seat, as we’ve been told when we went down to North Dakota at Falcon

’s fields. “You guys are in the driver’s seat.

You can control it.”

When we see this vast potential in the North with the oil and gas, we must seize the opportunity with the tools that we have at hand. I want to say that the Sahtu people are now experiencing the downfall of the low oil prices. There is no work and it’s stressful for our people.

Mr.

Speaker, I’ll have questions for the Minister of

ITI on this potential in the Sahtu.