Robert Hawkins

Thank you to the Minister of Justice for that important answer, Mr. Speaker. What I’d like to do is to see if we can seize that opportunity to help use the resources that exist in the city of Yellowknife such as they already have an enforcement division, but as the Minister knows very well, they’re not a policing division. So in other words, they don’t have the same powers and authority that the RCMP would have. Yet, that said, they are public officers in their own right and, of course, they have those types of responsibilities, again, different but similar in their own form. So there is a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If there was someone out there today in this existing market, or I should say in this existing climate, wanting to make this type of investment to develop a greenhouse, produce local herds, maybe some vegetables, potatoes, that type of thing, what type of program would the Minister recommend to be useful without a cap in order for them to be able to get enough money to do something useful? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Minister for providing that type of detail. Mr. Speaker, I think part of that speaks to some of this problem. As I said in my Member’s statement, there is potential to produce beef, pork, chicken, et cetera, and, as we all know, there is reindeer farming and even the Minister had highlighted, probably from his time of knowing about the cattle industry in his home area of Providence, Mr. Speaker. But in the programs that he described, there’s very little money set out for the traditional aspect of agriculture and development, of growing things and producing farm...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Mira Hall, a constituent of Yellowknife Centre and the most recent addition as a YK1 School Board trustee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister is correct; RCMP are providing not just excellent services, exemplary services, without any doubt in my mind. I happen to be one of their biggest fans.

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Minister that any program developed, it would have to be territory-wide and I would not assume in any fashion that it shouldn’t be. But crime is a problem and I don’t want to shock this House by making that statement, but a lot of crime, in my view, could be deterred by a visual presence. That’s really what I’m after, Mr. Speaker. I’m after do you think we could find a way to come up with a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The question I would like to raise today is how we can get more boots on the ground, from an enforcement point of view, than in the cars driving by. Mr. Speaker, I have talked to the Minister of Justice about this issue where there is a call out there by the public wanting to see more activity from our enforcement side on the ground, speaking to people, meeting people and developing that personality and presence in the community. We know that in the city of Yellowknife we have municipal enforcement, also known as bylaw, and many other communities and regions have bylaw...

Mr. Speaker, the Minister describes the program as SEED, and that’s quite rightly so, because that’s how some of the folks producing things sort of say that the grants are, about this big, because they seem pretty small. That’s a good description, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, trying to get some understanding of this Growing Forward Program, why is hunting and trapping under the Growing Forward Program? If it is so, could you clarify that here today? Because that’s a real issue for somebody out there who wants to tap into this and, as I mentioned, there’s the cranberry industry out there, and those...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to continue on this mini theme day and the spontaneity of the issue. The issue being raised today is simply how do we promote agriculture in the Northwest Territories and produce something that’s of value and useful, Mr. Speaker.

One of the initiatives brought forward by the federal government, in partnership with the Minister of ITI, is the Growing Forward Program. If I understand it correctly, it’s a three or four-year program. It’s at $3.2 million. But in speaking to industry people, there’s a fair bit of confusion around. You know, there are five programs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The time has never been riper to make the most of our opportunities for northern agriculture. By now, I think we’ve all heard we should think globally and act locally whenever possible. Mr. Speaker, I believe this is especially true for the way we eat and live here in the North, where we face some of the highest costs of living, especially on our food.

Mr. Speaker, there is great demand to buy locally produced products. Across the NWT, we see interest and enthusiasm from northern agriculture. Just ask the Arctic Farmer, who provides herbs to restaurants and there is a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I get into my comments, I want to make a significant acknowledgement to the families that have gone through this process. They have suffered greatly, all of them. As much as the Members here have been involved, the family side of this has probably taken a significant beating that we will never understand and appreciate.

Mr. Speaker, many events have unfolded in such a way that I can’t imagine any of us would have foreseen the direction it would have taken and certainly brought us to. In all honesty, in the tone of this Assembly, you don’t hear enthusiasm. You hear...