Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We worked long and hard to get our Devolution Agreement with the federal government. We also made a decision to regulate the oil and gas industry here in the Northwest Territories ourselves. Had we not made that decision, the industry would be regulated from Calgary by the National Energy Board, and Members on the other side of the House would not have the opportunity to question anybody and our government wouldn’t have opportunity to influence policy or direction on regulations. That would be left up to the National Energy Board of Canada.
What we have in front of us is an opportunity, and now Northerners and this government have the opportunity.
I want to thank the Member and the Regular Members for their help in helping us learn as much as we can about this process. We spent the last four years learning about the process of hydraulic fracturing. We’re moving forward with the process to develop draft regulations. We’ve heard from Northerners on important issues, water quality, air quality, disclosure. We’re working on all of those things, and it’s because of the work of the standing committee and the Regular Members and the people we’ve talked to around the Northwest Territories that we continue to move in that direction. We believe we can manage the resources that we have here in the Northwest Territories ourselves, and we intend to do just that.