Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you can tell, we’re having a little bit of a theme day here on hydraulic fracturing. I applaud the department in doing their due diligence and going out and doing the public engagement throughout the Northwest Territories.

On April 9th I had the opportunity to attend this

fracking meeting in Inuvik. We had over 30 participants, so obviously it was a big concern. It was one of the biggest public meetings that I have attended. A lot of passion was spoken by members and leadership, not only from Inuvik but we had leadership from Tsiigehtchic, Fort McPherson, Aklavik and Tuktoyaktuk. So, everybody from the Beaufort-Delta region was there expressing their views, expressing their concerns.

We are told that these public hearings are to help us guide these regulations as we are moving forward. We heard a lot of good discussions about the shale potential in the Inuvialuit, the Gwich’in and the Sahtu regions. As you can tell, all of the regions are also going through some economic hard times. So, obviously, there was some great opportunity to look at the economic prosperities in

those three communities as well as the Liard Basin, among other areas throughout the Northwest Territories where hydraulic fracturing can also help increase the economy and increase jobs for the people. As I mentioned, in those areas the economy is very slow.

We also heard about strengthening the regulations that we, as a government, have inherited through these public forums, and I think that is some of the process as we are moving forward.

We also talked a little bit about if we do proceed, we can strengthen the regulations, but more importantly, through the public engagement process we are educating the residents of the Northwest Territories on hydraulic fracturing. I know there are a lot of misconceptions out there. There are a lot of facts out there and we want to make sure that we can make our decisions based on facts.

At the meeting there were a lot of concerns that were brought up from our leadership, from concerned citizens who attended, things such as seismic testing, the disclosure of chemicals, which has been brought up in this House before from some Members, especially some of those chemicals that are patented by some of these companies. Obviously, with the Beaufort-Delta there was a big concern with the water flow and possible chemicals, should there be a possible spill, and the wastewater. With that, we don’t even have wastewater disposal sites.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted