July 25, 2014 – 9:26 PM Deadline July 25, 2014

Feedback For: Discussion Paper:

Hydraulic Fracturing - Understanding the General Regulatory Issues
Dear Panel, I attended your public meeting held in Amherst on July 22, 2014 at 98 Victoria Street, the Dominion Public Building from Noon until 2 PM (though it did run a bit longer) I believe it was Dr. Wheeler who was speaking at this event, President of Cape Breton University.
One aspect of this event I took away was that your panel would not be recommending whether we should frack or not frack.
I did take AWAY FROM THIS MEETING THAT YOU WOULD BE RECOMENDING COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN THE DECISION PROCESS OF WHETHER TO PURSUE Unconventional Oil and Gas Development.
From my understanding of the laws of the Province of Nova Scotia the communities really have no say of whether to proceed with this process or not, and it is completely up to the Provincial Government.
As evidence of this the only ever live political debate I have ever attended was our last Municipal election here in Cumberland County and all three candidates at that debate actually all agreed that they were completely against Unconventional Oil and Gas Development (fracking) in Cumberland County (and it is about the only thing they actually all agreed on) and as explained by our current Warden, the County really has no say in this matter.
So to me the community involvement in this process is just really not going to effect the final decision.
Dr. Wheeler did state the reason why the panel would not be recommending whether to frack or not to frack as something that really should be left up to the politicians and the democratic process.
Well that is fine if we really had a true democratic process. The way our democratic process works at present is if you are an elected member (MLA or Member of the Legislative Assembly) of any particular political party, you vote exactly how your political masters tell you to (or Party Whip says), otherwise if you do not, you are most likely dumped from your political party, if the Party can afford to do so. As evidence of this just look to Bill Casey (not an MLA, but rather an MP) (which I know about) or Ross Bragg (which I did not know about until July 22, 2014 at about 3 PM and really have not confirmed yet myself as of yet, but since your deadline for this feedback is tonight at 11:59 PM, I leave that to you).
I respectfully submit that if the Panel recommends community involvement in this process of unconventional oil and gas development, that laws be put into place that binds the Province to follow what the actual community involvement recommends or decides.
Best Regards,
Richard Plett
2427 Beecham Road
Tidnish, NS
B4H 3X9