Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When asked what his secret to success was, Wayne Gretzky replied that most players go for where the puck is while he goes for where the puck is going to be. I know our Premier and ITI Minister are hockey players, and they’re good ones. If we want to be stars like the Great One, we need to recognize that oil and gas may be where the puck is at currently, but renewable energy is where the puck will be by the time we get there. Let’s apply this insight to the NWT economic development energy strategy and listen to the goal buzzer shriek with joy.

It’s obvious that the days of the world’s reliance on fossil fuels for energy and our economic foundation are numbered. We can continue chasing this elusive puck at great cost, and ultimately in vain, or we can jump to environmentally clean, locally derived and job-rich energy systems and sustainable economic models based on our knowledge of where the economic opportunities are shifting to.

Instead of asking what costly subsidies and complex but ultimately ineffective regulations are required to get one last gasp boom and bust cycle out of fossil fuel exploitation, let’s capitalize on the real opportunities that renewable energy development enables. Let’s shift from fossil fuel addiction – I know it’s hard – and climate destroying, water poisoning, forest flattening, rock fracturing and community stressing petrochemical exploitation to the earth replenishing, job creating, wealth distributing and community supporting development of wind, solar, biomass and small hydro energy sources.

Let’s connect the dots. Alberta is burning up and closing tar sands operations. The West Coast is parched with record drought. Texas went from a record drought to floodwaters rising eight metres in 24 hours. One thousand people died last week in India of heat stress. Six hundred twenty square kilometres of our forest burned in May under record draught conditions. Science shows that human civilization is now at risk from dangerous climate change as it comes with two degrees warming. Clearly, it is happening right now with a one degree change. Eighty percent of known reserves must stay in the ground, according to science, to avoid dangerous climate change and impacts on human civilization. The question of fracking is moot.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Abandoning already stranded fossil fuels and quickly positioning ourselves to take advantage of renewable opportunities is the obvious and compulsory answer. We have the chance to be there to meet the renewable energy puck and slap it into the net. Will we hear the crowd roar? We can if we so choose on behalf of our people and our land. I certainly hope we do. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many of my constituents are very concerned with our government moving forward with regulations to allow horizontal hydraulic fracturing. My constituents are thinking of the future. They are concerned that we may pollute our lakes and rivers. Many of my constituents live a traditional way of life and harvest wildlife and fish from the land.

Many of my constituents are also thinking of our future generations. They also want their children and grandchildren to have the same opportunities we have today to live off the land. Mr. Speaker, we need to do a better job to consult our constituents and have workshops on horizontal hydraulic fracturing. I’d also like to quote one of my constituents: “Our land, water and wildlife are priceless.”

As we move forward with our regulations, I believe we need to extend the time frame. I know we’re looking at the fall, but I think we need to take more time. We need to ensure that our residents are comfortable with this government moving forward with hydraulic fracturing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before we begin I’m going to say it has become crystal clear in the work that we do here that hydraulic fracturing certainly has become the most important ideological question of our time. True leadership is the willingness to put the question sometimes to the people, rather than trying to say, “Here I’m a leader and I make all the decisions in isolation.”

Knowing that, the government is still trying to understand and balance its role as land and resources regulator. We’re starting to see the ITI Minister take on some of these responsibilities for regulating oil and gas and mineral projects, but at

times you see him almost like with a two-headed job. Of course, the Minister only has one head, at least that I can see, and you can see the Minister certainly has a tough job promoting the industry one day, but then, of course, trying to give the final word of the application in a most fair and appreciated manner.

So, what is it really? I know the rules, of course. They’re spelled out so the Minister can only do so much so far and he has sworn he has delegated the authority, which we’ve seen on paper, but sometimes it causes you to wonder. Of course, now we have the review of the regulations of the hydraulic fracturing in process. The question really, in my opinion here is starting to weigh, is where is the public’s good being weighed in on this question? Of course, we’re reviewing the regulations before we have the good will or certainly the permission and support of the public to this particular fracking.

As well, at the same time, I have to paint a face on it that Minister Ramsay I’m not sure is as open-minded as he likes to try to tell the public he is with his public comments that he has made in the media that fracking is needed for economic growth and we believe, he says, “it can be done in a safe and secure manner.” So I’m not really sure, with that type of perspective and those types of words from the Minister, why he even bothers wasting his time with the public at that point. I mean, we all know we’re being driven to a further resolve.

If I go a little further, in an e-mail the Friday before, it says, “Resources in this area will require hydraulic fracturing to extract them.” So again, what we’ve got here is a situation with the Minister saying one thing and we’re putting the board sort of in between the old proverbial rock and a hard place. We’ve got the applicant that one day may or may not come forward with an application to frack. The board is supposed to be independent in how to do these things, and we’ve got the Minister’s opinion saying, “Its safe and we have to do these things.” We all know boards don’t want to upset their Minister, even though they are independent.

I should at this time request unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Thank you.

----Unanimous consent denied

Thank you. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We have commonly heard that the GNWT is in a balancing act, weighing both conservation and industrial development with a zeal to create an economy for

jobs and business opportunities in the overall growth of the NWT.

Industrial economic development, when we say that we’re presuming that we’re underdeveloped, that the system that we have, particularly the environmental regime that we have in place, could be said to be archaic, and our recent efforts have been made to try to update the whole system that we have through the devolution exercise. Similarly, we have a very socially challenged labour pool of people who are afflicted with minimum grade levels and alcohol and drug abuse. Our people are highly dependent on the government for assistance and subsidies.

When we say conservation, we want to keep certain areas of the environment as pristine as we can for future generations. That means having no development in certain areas.

In October 2011, the point was raised on whether the GNWT was considering following other jurisdictions in Canada by establishing a moratorium on fracking. Right now the current effort is to develop regulations to allow fracking. The Northwest Territories could be said to have a strong traditional economy, hunting, fishing and trapping. Our people gain pride in terms of being independent, to supplement their income, to put food on their table.

I wanted to reference a film that I saw as a youngster, and that movie was called “A Paddle to the Sea.” It’s about a small carving of a person in a canoe paddling the great lakes and rivers that we have in Canada. What it illustrated to me is that those rivers that we see float by our communities are sourced from mountains and ice that floats down to the river systems and that eventually comes to our communities and our homes. The rivers and creeks and lakes that we have are part of the watershed systems that we have in place in the NWT, and efforts are being made to ensure that we have a very vigilant system in place to ensure that there is a level of monitoring and assessment in place to ensure that disasters don’t happen.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my Member’s statement. Mahsi.

---Unanimous consent granted

Our colleagues in the Yukon have noted the need for further research on the permafrost degradation relative to the climate change we’re seeing, including the warming trends that we’re seeing all over the world, including in the NWT.

Climate change is causing a trend of drought in certain areas of the world and North America, especially in the southern part of North America, and we’re experiencing a shortage of quality water. Water is becoming a precious and valued commodity. We need to ensure that we have a

rigorous environmental assessment in place to ensure that we protect the water system that we have and enjoy here in the NWT.

I support the need for consultation with the public to determine whether hydraulic fracturing should be allowed or not. There is a need for further development in the regulations that we see that have been out in the public for some time. This matter requires a full consensus of all people in the NWT, and this is a very important matter that we need to ensure that everybody has input into this matter. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

We all know what the definition of a dictatorship is, so I invite you to stay tuned. I say that personal vendettas and agendas are going to come out. You are going to see them in the next six months. I cannot stop it. The only power that can stop it is this side of the House. I personally can’t alone do anything about it, but I ask you to stay tuned.

When we were meeting in Caucus this morning, when we decided on our schedules and what we’re going to do, I personally, with my own ears – and I do not make this up – heard Mr. Miltenberger talk about the fact that we are leaving here Thursday and not coming back until September 29th . These

were the words: “Four months of no oversight.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize and welcome to the gallery and to the House some representatives we have from Canadian Tire Corporation who took part in the announcement today. We are appreciative of the support that they have shown. We have Mr. Landon French, who is the vice-president of community relations for Canadian Tire Corporation and the executive director of Jump Start. We have Pierina De Carolis and Kim Desrochers, both from Canadian Tire Corporation. Welcome to the House.

We also have with them three hardworking members of MACA who put a lot of these programs into place and we appreciate the work that you do. Mr. Tom Williams, deputy minister; Ian Legaree, who is also up there and we have Damon Crossman, who is also up there. Thank you very much for all the work that you do.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a great pleasure to welcome some more students to the House today to see our proceedings. We have a Grade 6 class from St. Joseph school. I would just like to recognize all of them today, if I could. They are accompanied by Jennifer Genge, their teacher; and Mr. Stephen Richardson, classroom assistant. Matthew Baggs, Gabe Beard, Aaradhana Bhattarai, Claire Cooper, Quinn Critch, Red Dela Prez, Jaida Dowe, Vincent Embodo, Ashlin Gauchier, Caelem Grandjambe, Brandon Koe, Vy Luu, Carleigh Luxon – she is not there – Gairon Mason, Jace Menton, Laurelle Pittman, Kassandra Rawless, Kevin Santos, Jeremy Snow, Aron Taylor, Lydia Taylor, Gabby Uy and Mya Wrigley. She is not there.

One other person who is up there that I want to recognize is my CA, Ms. Wendy Morgan. Welcome to the House.

While I’ve got the floor, I want to thank Canadian Tire and Canadian Tire Corporation for all the good work that you’re doing up here in the Northwest Territories. Thanks for visiting us.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my pleasure today to recognize one of our hardworking Pages who resides in my riding of Frame Lake. Caleb Cleary has been working for us for the two weeks, I think, and will be continuing on, I think, for the rest of the week. Thank you to all the Pages, and particularly to Caleb, for the work that they do.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to recognize two constituents. One, Marie Speakman. She was originally from Deline and now she’s living here. I would also like to recognize Sheila Karkagie from Tulita.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Always a great pleasure to welcome constituent Tony Whitford, honourary table officer extraordinaire and brings a special energy to the House, as I think we all agree. Great to see you, Tony.

I would also like to recognize a few people in the gallery who were participating in a demonstration

outside the House today passing messages on to the House. My colleague has already mentioned Sheila Karkagie. Also, Keira Kolson and Marie Speakman, I believe, was in there, as well, and there may well be others in the House that were part of that. I appreciated hearing from the people.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Nadli.