Legislative Assembly briefs
Minister grilled on fracking
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Two Yellowknife MLAs grilled Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay last week over a lack of consultation on whether fracking should go ahead in the territory.
Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro asked why the Yukon could do such a consultation but the territorial government hasn't.
Yellowknfie Centre MLA Robert Hawkins said the key question is whether the public supports the controversial oil and gas extraction method and consulting on regulations doesn't address that question.
"This is like putting icing on a cake and we never asked them if they like cake type of thing, and we are serving it to them," Hawkins said May 28.
The minister did not directly answer questions from Hawkins and Bisaro at several points, instead speaking about how the GNWT has taken on oversight and regulation of the industry since devolution. He emphasized that the GNWT will seek to protect the environment.
"That is not the question we're asking right now," Ramsay said in reply to Hawkins' question on public support.
"Don't we owe it to the residents of the Northwest Territories to better understand exactly what we're getting ourselves into before we ask that question, before we throw that opportunity out for the people that live in the central Mackenzie Valley and in the Sahtu who are hungry for the jobs and the economic opportunities?"
A report last month by the National Energy Board and the GNWT estimated there are 200 billion barrels of shale oil under the Sahtu.
Ramsay said the GNWT will continue seeking public input on the regulations until the end of August.
MLA urges better fire communication
Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins says the government needs to improve the way it communicates potential highway closures due to wildfires to MLAs and businesses such as grocery stores.
A fire along Highway 3 prompted the Department of Transportation to use social media to warn the only land route connecting the city to the south could close at any moment due last week.
Hawkins said he learned of that via media. He said MLAs should be notified by e-mail so they can pass the information on to constituents. A section of Highway 3 between Fort Providence and Behchoko was then closed Friday for several hours to conduct a controlled burn.
He said in the assembly Friday he's heard from grocery stores that if they had more notice, they could rush in necessities before a closure. MLAs should also be notified by e-mail so they can pass the information on to constituents, he said.
Transportation Minister Tom Beaulieu said the department is concerned if they took the approach of contacting individuals they may miss a company or institution.
"Well, not contacting anybody misses everybody," Hawkins said.
Beaulieu was receptive to Hawkin's proposal to create a list of industry members who should be contacted.
"If we're able to determine that we might have to shut the road down two days out, four days out, whatever, I will be prepared to accept a list from the Members and provide that to the departments and the departments can touch base with those organizations that need to know in advance if there's going to be a highway closure," Beaulieu said.
Power questions continue
Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley became the latest city MLA to question cabinet's electricity agenda as a Crown corporation plans to bid for the Hay River franchise agreement to distribute power.
Northland Utilities has the current agreement but the town has opened a request for proposal process seeking a bidder who can deliver lower power rates. The government announced last week that the GNWT-owned NWT Power Corporation will be submitting a bid.
Questions have been slung from regular MLAs to Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger, who is responsible for power corp., over the past week.
Bromley said in the absence of a debate, the GNWT has moved toward a policy of massive subsidies for the power corp.
"Big questions, incredibly and worryingly, remain undebated and unresolved," Bromley said Monday. "In the absence of thoroughly debated and crafted policy incorporating today's technologies and potential for distributed energy, we actively kill sustainable opportunities, adopt an unaffordable and unsustainable policy of massive subsidies and now propose to direct a Crown corporation that has failed to ever reduce costs to compete for yet more monopolized responsibility for power delivery. All with zero consultation with MLAs or even the current Hay River provider which has 60 plus years of experience doing the work."
Asked when a strategy would be forthcoming, Miltenberger cited the GNWT investing millions in alternative energy, two energy charrette meetings and evaluating expansion of the transmission system as things that have already taken place.
Miltenberger, answering questions from Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins, said should NTPC or a third party get the franchise agreement, it would trigger an asset purchase process of Northland's power distribution infrastructure in Hay River.
If the sides disagree on a price - and Northland has said its assets aren't for sale - arbitration would kick in to settle on a value.
Northland has valued its territory-wide assets at $180 million but did not specify its Hay River asset value. Hawkins sought to clarify whether that arbitration process should be called "expropriation" as Northland has done.
"No, they are not the same," Miltenberger said.
