Michael Nadli

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Minister for his reply and, of course, working with communities. I know some have predicted, especially people that work in, of course, predicting the weather. They have indicated that it could be a hot, dry season this year, and of course, the department is also equally responsible for forest fire management, but with this tiny little morel that grows in the wild, I mean, are we ready in terms of managing and monitoring and regulating perhaps the transient people that might come up North?

I’d like to thank the Minister for working with communities in terms of trying to get a handle in terms of the growing interest in these mushrooms that grow abundantly in the wild and especially this time of the year.

In developing the interim measures, can the Minister state to the House who was consulted in coming to the interim measure that have been put in place at this point? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We need legislation to manage the commercial use of non-timber forest products in the NWT. Within a matter of days, morels and other species of wild mushrooms will have reached their prime picking season in the NWT. A large number of commercial harvesters from BC and Alberta are coming to the Deh Cho to pick mushrooms in the areas that burned during last summer’s forest fires, where these mushrooms grow best.

Wild mushrooms are considered gourmet food because they cannot be cultivated and must be applicably identified and hand-picked from the places where they are found. As...

Part of the measures that have been put in place is a price, and I want to ask the Minister what is the cost of a business licence for mushroom harvesters and how were those rates determined?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is in regard to accountability and I want to know who is accountable for the tiny morel mushrooms.

---Laughter

So my question is to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I just became aware recently, to be quite honest, in terms of the significance of mushrooms. I wasn’t very aware. I knew they existed and I have actually personally seen them in the bush when you walk through the bush and come across these small vegetative growths on the ground and sometimes you find them in trees. I didn’t understand their significance until recently.

Of course...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that Committee Report 5-17(5), Report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations on the Review of the 2012-2013 Northwest Territories Human Rights Commission Annual Report, be received by the Assembly and adopted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to proudly recognize a few of my constituents that will be representing Fort Providence in the Northwest Territories during this Arctic Winter Games in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Michael Leishman is a high school teacher who will be chaperoning four students of Fort Providence and will be attending the Arctic Winter Games. He’s also one of the coaches who will be coaching the table tennis tournaments.

Christina Bonnetrouge, 16, is in Grade 10. She will be trying out for the juvenile women’s badminton. Christina has always been in sports. One of her favourite sports is...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that Committee Report 5-17(5), Report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations on the Review of the 2012-2013 Northwest Territories Human Rights Commission Annual Report, be deemed read and printed in Hansard in its entirety.

Thank you. The Minister indicated that part of the efforts to address the need for daycare subsidies is that it’s something that quite possibly could be expanded.

Why doesn’t this government provide a financial aid package that matches the real costs of education? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Northerners aspire to further their education, there becomes different trails that students take, especially in regard to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. We all want, in the North here, to ensure that we have enough doctors, lawyers, management professionals, teachers, just to name a few, so our students can aspire to those positions.

In small communities there has been a trend in terms of our schools not doing well, especially our students compared to larger centres. Four out of 10 of our Aboriginal students compared to the non-Aboriginal students don’t...