David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to take a second to recognize Mr. Darrell Beaulieu. Darrell is also the chair of our Business Development and Investment Corporation and I know Margaret Gorman is with him from DDC. Welcome.

It often doesn’t get said, but I want to recognize Anthony W.J. “Tony” Whitford. He is my predecessor in the riding of Kam Lake, the last guy to serve as the MLA for Kam Lake. Welcome to the House.

As well, Jackie Milne. I know others have said she’s a real champion of agriculture here in the Northwest Territories and I want to welcome her to the House, as well as David...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve got a few folks in the gallery today that I’d like to recognize, a number of BDIC board members. I’ll start with the chair, Mr. Darrell Beaulieu, we’ve got Mr. Charlie Furlong, Joanne Deneron, Ruby Landry and Gwen Robak. Thank you so very for being here this afternoon.

I also wanted to recognize Deputy Premier Taylor and Speaker Laxton. I’m glad to have you guys here.

Also, a constituent of mine, Mr. Lloyd Lush, president of the Legion here in Yellowknife. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not aware of the specifics on whether or not we are involved, whether NWT Tourism or the department is involved in that. I will endeavor to find that information out, but certainly if there’s a way that we can continue to promote the region and promote the territory through advertising and that is an opportunity for us, we will certainly take a look at that. Thank you.

We have had discussions with the Territorial Farmers’ Association; they have been involved. The advancement of the institute in Hay River, folks there have been involved.

This will happen in the life of this government, we will have this strategy in place. We have just over a year left in the life of this government. I want to assure Members that we feel very strongly about putting this in place and, again, having those tools in place at our disposal to grow the industry here in the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to work with MACA and with Lands to look at the land issue as well...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Out of the EOS, the idea of an agricultural strategy was born, and we are moving forward with the agricultural strategy. I agree with the Member; the Northwest Territories is one of only two jurisdictions in the country without a comprehensive agricultural strategy in place. We are going to change that. Work has started.

To advance and nurture growth in this sector as well as economic opportunity and benefits for the Northwest Territories agricultural industry, a definitive strategy and accompanying policy instruments are certainly needed to help guide decision-making...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 42, An Act to Amend the Residential Tenancies Act, be read for the second time.

This bill amends the Residential Tenancies Act to reduce the retention period for inspector reports from three years to 18 months, require landlords to provide receipts to tenants and former tenants on request, clarify that subsection 51(5) applies to both tenancies which begin as a fixed term and of periodic tenancies, permit termination of a tenancy agreement in circumstances where family violence has occurred...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “2013-2014 Report of the Legal Services Board of the NWT.” Thank you.

I certainly encourage the folks at NWT Parks and Rec to contact our staff in Inuvik, our ITI staff in Inuvik. There are a lot of great things, and the Member really made a great statement today on this. The opportunities here don’t end at tourism, of course healthy lifestyles, and including maybe Health and Social Services and trying to get as much out of this as we possibly can. I really appreciate where the Member is coming at with this. So, if there is a way that ITI can help out, we’d certainly like to be there to lend our support. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, what I will do is I will have a discussion with the Minister of MACA and we will try to find a solution to do this. It’s important that agricultural pursuits don’t have the hurdles to go over. In this case, it looks like there is a hurdle there and that’s the issue of land and the availability of land.

I want to assure the Member that at the earliest possible opportunity we will have a discussion with MACA and we will try to sort this out. Thank you.

A policy, a strategy on agriculture, I mean, it’s not going to be worth the paper it’s written on if we don’t have access to land, so I agree with the Member.

We are going to continue to work with Lands and MACA to ensure that where available, we will make land available for agriculture here in the Northwest Territories. The Members don’t have to look any further than in this room to see support for agriculture. Here in the Northwest Territories we’ve had a great deal of success in a lot of our communities across the territory. When it comes to growing this sector, we feel there is a really...