Mr. Speaker, more now than ever, there are curious choices before all of us, choices that will pretty much define us as we go forward. It’s like sewing a seed into the future every step we take. A future we hold for ourselves and our children. If not our children’s future, then who?
Who do we secure this future for? Right before us, not unlike yesterday and certainly not unlike tomorrow, we must be faced with choices that have to be made by ourselves because we have been the ones we have been waiting for. We need the change that we promised we’d bring. We certainly need the strength and courage and willingness to ask the tough questions that, unfortunately, and sometimes with great courage, need to be asked. Do we have the strength within ourselves? I believe we do.
We should be defined by this opportunity that stands here today. What opportunity is that? Let us be known as the Assembly that has the courage, the willingness, the strength to ask, should hydraulic fracturing happen in our territory? It doesn’t take a lot of courage to ask that. It takes enormous courage to stand by that. They’re more than just words on paper. They are about our future, the future for ourselves, the future for our friends, the future for our families.
Some will stand by and lean on old decisions, the NEB’s policy and direction under their watch. If we do it their way, why did we fight so hard for devolution? These rules are of the old regime. I thought we were working to untie those shackles. We wanted to go forward in our own way.
The LP hardly would tell us the past is a foreign country. They do things differently there and I thought that’s why we were fighting for devolution. I’m calling for a one-year educational pause on hydraulic fracturing because we need to ask the right questions. It’s not about how we should do regulations on fracturing but whether we should be fracking no matter what conditions. We will never be Alberta and nor should we try. We have a great and powerful region called the Sahtu. That region needs opportunities, and before them these are the types they have. Are we giving them the support they need? We must give them their chances.
As I said, why are we doing this? We have the courage to do it for the right reasons. More than words, let’s stand by them through actions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
