Life on the road: Five days on a fracking tour through the Sahtu

CBC North radio producer Peter Sheldon recently travelled across the Northwest Territories' Sahtu region to cover a series of public input sessions about new fracking regulations proposed by the territorial government. He attended three meetings, drove three trucks, and ate a dozen granola bars to keep him going. Here's what he saw.  

I was supposed to fly to Norman Wells on Sunday, but that flight went mechanical. I'm not the first person that's happened to. It meant I had to cancel my scheduled connecting flight to Fort Good Hope, too. So the new plan had me flying to Fort Good hope, direct, on Monday, but that flight was overbooked. So they said they're sending me to Deline first, and they did, and that was nice. 

Met this guy, Greg. He's been the weather guy at the Deline airport since '87:

And then we were back on the plane and heading for Fort Good Hope and these two kids made me forget I was an hour late for the fracking meeting. Look at them. They're happy, and smiles are infectious.

We did make it to the meeting, only to find that the community wasn't happy with the answers they weren't getting from the government official they didn't really want to talk to. The official, who was lucky he wasn't late too, was remaining fairly calm despite the bullseye the community say his bosses drew on his chest when they sent him as the messenger the community didn't want to shoot. 

No blood was spilled, but the hall still needed a good cleanse the next day. Thanks, Martha.

I wanted a new scene, too, so I went to the school. Turns out they just got a defibrillator, and a smart board, and a 2nd place banner in the junior basketball tournament, and the principal was pretty proud of all that (go Eagles). Learned how to introduce myself in Slavey too (thanks, Margaret). 

Then I went and dodged a few logs around town.

The river is still solid, so guys with sleds and toboggans are dragging trees back from the island, I heard, and chopping up their wood to dry for next winter. Seems like a good spring activity. This also happened:

That was something. Then, it was off to Norman Wells.

First impressions matter when you visit a new place. You learn things about a town, but also yourself. 

I, it seems, pay close attention to bridges. That's how I noticed this was more than an oil town: it's a big tree bridge town, too.

Then a couple of things happened in a row before I went to bed. 

First, a man named Bill told me he shot a muskox, and I looked around and didn't see a muskox. Then he said he'd shot it a week ago, so I looked in the back of his truck for some reason, but he said he cached it on the land because he got sick. Today was the big day he'd go back out to collect his frozen beast. 

Then, we went to the airport to pick up my colleague Shannon's camera, because the other one broke and it's hard to be a TV reporter without one of those. Turns out the camera was bumped. Too much luggage. Here's the moment Shannon learned that.

Then, we witnessed a birth. It's a girl. Just kidding.  

The Norman Wells meeting was at the Legion and people arrived in their big trucks, but not in a lot of trucks. It was a small crowd, and it was lunch time, and some people here say they only found out about it when it was almost too late. 

The pro-development crowd was here and spoke in favour of fracking done safely. Their quotes are colourful: tourists "coming down the river ain't gonna cut it."

So are their coats. 

Tulita's meeting started at 6:00, even though it was scheduled for 7:00, because the GNWT team had to fly at 9:30. They were invited to stay the night but said they couldn't, which upset some who thought this was all a little rushed, and we were just getting started.

Public engagement is a contact sport. The sentiments expressed were similar to other meetings. I tweeted all about it. 

And people were listening closely, on both sides, but especially Teresa Etchinelle. She was translating Slavey into English, with all the facts and emotion. She got a lot of thank yous, and deserved every one. 

Then were were gone, back to Yellowknife. The flight was early, which made our ride home late, but we didn't mind. 

The luggage made it, including a notebook full of stories: the real gift of the road.