Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I would like to follow up on my statement and ask some questions about the action that’s going to be taken on replacing board members on the Ekati Independent Environmental Monitoring Agency Board.

In my experience, that board has done extremely good work. In my experience, as well, it is past practice to replace board members when they retire. It’s also my experience that the board has been relatively critical in doing their good work and sometimes forces the owner/operator, Ekati, to do some things which they may not want to do but which are better in the long run.

My first question to the Minister is: Who initiated this change in board members? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This particular board has bylaws where folks are appointed, but there is no end date to their terms. That’s one issue. At least one of the members has been on the board since 1997. That’s another issue. In the Northwest Territories in my time in government, my time in government period, the whole goal has been to put Northerners in positions and on the boards where they are making decisions about activities that affect people of the Northwest Territories, the whole thrust of devolution. So when the opportunity came that the board bylaws were going to be redone, that there’s

going to be terms set in and that everybody would have end terms, their terms would lapse and the new bylaws would kick in, it seemed to be a very critical time and a natural time to put Northerners into those positions. We do have capable Northerners, skilled Northerners, experienced Northerners who can do that. That’s one of the functions of government, and when that opportunity came due, I as Minister said this was the time to do that. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for that information. I can’t argue against putting Northerners on boards. I agree with that, but I do have a large problem with the way this process was done. It suggests that these particular board members weren’t doing good work and I know that that’s not true.

So, in order to provide for continuity on the board, in order to find a good way to do it to ensure a smooth transition from one set of board members to another, because this is happening in the middle of an environmental assessment, I would like to ask the Minister if he consulted the board before this decision was made on what was the best way to do it. Thank you.

I, as well, would like to acknowledge that the work that was done by the current board members is not the question. Their ability is not being questioned. The fact that they have the skill is not being questioned. What we have is an opportunity with the changing of the bylaws and putting in terms, that there’s a natural transition point that we should take advantage of because there’s a fundamental underlying priority that we have Northerners who can do those jobs and can fill those positions and they should be there. Current board members live in other jurisdictions, other provinces south of 60 and the time has come to make the switch. We’ve done it in a time where the board is changing its bylaws, there then will be an opportunity for outgoing board members to sit in a meeting with the incoming board members, along with the other board, to have that final meeting, to have that transitional arrangement. Then this board will be populated with Northerners, which is a fundamental priority of the government.

To say that these people, yes, they are living in the South; however, they lived here for a very long time. I think two out of the three I know for sure were here for 10 or 15 years. To make this change in the middle of an environmental assessment is what really concerns me. I don’t think that the Minister has accepted that.

In replacing these board members, what skillsets did he consider are needed for the board to do its job? What were they looking for in replacing these board members? Thank you.

There are three members out of the board, so there is critical mass there already. If, God forbid, these three hardworking individuals from the South were hit by lightning and were unable to do their jobs, we would soldier on. We would pick up the pieces and we would put people there to do the job. So this is a circumstance where there’s a natural break where we can put Northerners in place and we are looking for people, Northerners, educated, knowledge of the regulatory system, knowledge of the context of the work that’s being done, knowledge of the players, knowledge of the history of the North that live here and that have a clear, vested interest in making the right decisions, working with the rest of the board members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister may consider that it’s a natural break, but I think there are people who don’t consider replacing people in the middle of an environmental assessment is a natural break.

Considering the skills that are leaving the board and considering that we are in the middle of an environmental assessment, I would like to ask the Minister why he did not talk to the board prior to making this change. Why not get some ideas for potential replacements? Why not get some ideas about the best timing to do this change? Why not get some ideas about the best way to do it to transition and to maintain continuity? Thank you.

The decision to make the change was a political decision. The decision on how it was going to be done was worked through so that it would come at a time that makes logical sense, which the board was involved in and which the board supports. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment made a statement in the House the other day about the Oil and Gas Strategy, and in his statement he mentions that he’s got a job on the expertise and knowledge of regional territorial stakeholders, Aboriginal governments and industry to develop a strategy that truly reflects northern values and priorities.

Can I ask the Minister just to get an update on where he is with that? Has he held these regional meetings, specifically up in the Beaufort-Delta, to look at developing this strategy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re still in the process of doing consultation. We’ve had probably about 20 meetings with individuals, Aboriginal governments and people involved in industry. As we get towards developing our Oil and Gas Strategy – and we will be at the earliest opportunity – I mentioned in my statement the other day that we will be getting in front of SCEDI and the Regular Members and getting their input on the developments of an Oil and Gas Strategy for the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

In terms of just starting the process of consultation, I’d like to ask the Minister, has he had any consultation with Aurora College and learning centres? Specifically in Inuvik, they have that mobile trades unit that can go into the communities and train our individuals on these particular appropriate trades and skills for the oil and gas sector when that economy picks back up.

Has he had those consultations with Aurora College to start developing those kinds of trades programs so that we’ll have people trained and educated and ready to take the jobs when the economy picks back up?

Having an able-bodied workforce and people ready to take advantage of the jobs that are going to be coming in the oil and gas sector is very important. I know we had a focus group session in Inuvik recently. I’d have to go back to the department. I’m not sure if Aurora College or folks from ECE were at that meeting. I’ll get that information for the Member. Thank you.

I appreciate the efforts that are going into this Oil and Gas Strategy and looking at trying to get our resources out to market. However, we do have two communities in the Northwest Territories that are actually surrounded by oil and gas and having issues with their gas situation, and that’s Norman Wells and Inuvik.

I wonder if, in this strategy, whether or not the Minister would look at… We’re building all this infrastructure and roads with the Canada Building Fund, once that gets approved, to get our resources out to market. I’m thinking about a different type of infrastructure in terms of… Can we get some infrastructure built to one of the wells near Inuvik so that we can start supplying natural gas back to the community, which will lower the costs for residents, for the businesses and also lower costs for this government as we’re paying all that money to trucking up all the LNG and paying for all those bills that we have our government buildings on diesel? Is that going to be part of the strategy, building this other type of infrastructure?

Utilizing the resource that we have here in the Northwest Territories for our

own residents and our own communities certainly is something that we should be striving toward, and of course with Inuvik being surrounded, as the Member mentioned, with gas, and the construction of the Inuvik-Tuk highway, there could perfectly be opportunities here as we move forward to get more gas into Inuvik, into Tuktoyaktuk and other communities in the Mackenzie Delta as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad to hear that that’s a possibility. I want to make sure that there’s an assurance to that.

When this strategy is being developed and with the Inuvik-Tuk highway being developed, as well, can the Minister ensure residents of the Beaufort-Delta that infrastructure will be on the agenda to get the oil and gas back to the communities of Inuvik and possibly Tuktoyaktuk when we’re developing the strategy? Thank you.

Of course, infrastructure is a key to any success we are going to have in the oil and gas sector as we continue to develop our resources here in the territory. I would encourage residents in the Mackenzie Delta and in the Beaufort region to go online because we are going to have a survey online. I would encourage Members, when we do have consultation with Members, to continue to highlight that fact.

Undoubtedly, infrastructure will be a key part of the Oil and Gas Strategy on how we get our resources developed. So, again, I would encourage the Member and residents to please take part in the consultation process as it plays itself out. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.