Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my sister-in-law Lucy Ann Yakeleya. I also recognize Marie Wilson, Frank Hope and Jeannie. Also to a special guy, Anthony Whitford.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to also recognize the good work that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been doing. I was able to attend the event in Inuvik and it was really well done. Also Anthony Whitford, who has been a regular at the Assembly and is a mentor of sorts, and my constituency assistant, Maia Lepage. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Tony Whitford, as well, and also add that he is an auctioneer. Thanks, Tony.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to wish welcome to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but more importantly, to have the honour of Mr. Anthony Whitford here with us is always a blessing and, as we found out this last weekend, he has been one of the spearheads for Relay for Life and he’s also a cancer survivor.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s an honour always to recognize the Honourable Anthony W.J. Whitford, who is a friend of many and he’s looking fantastic. As our colleague Mr. Dolynny said, he is a survivor of cancer. I have seen him with a great spring in his step lately. It’s nice to see the old Tony back.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I’d like to welcome all the visitors in the public gallery here today taking an interest in our proceedings. Welcome to the Legislative Assembly.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to acknowledge and congratulate my constituent Marie Wilson on her recent recognition as an Honourary Doctor of Laws by St. Thomas University in New Brunswick. This distinction comes in tribute to Ms. Wilson’s lifelong contribution to the quality of public discourse in the North, in Canada and the world. Her work in CBC, our WSCC, and now in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is a model of public service. I invite you to join with me in saluting and congratulating Ms. Wilson on the conferral of this honour.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talk about the residential school students who went to schools outside their communities. I talked somewhat about my uncle. I want to ask – I don’t know if it’s the Minister of Justice or the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, but maybe I’ll ask the Minister of Justice on this one here – about students that did not come back to their communities. There are some families in the communities who are waiting for their son or their brother or their sister. One of their family members has not come back. What is the Department of Justice doing to help the communities and family members to know what happened to those students at the residential school they attended?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not certain, but I will absolutely work with my colleague from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and other individuals throughout Canada, including possibly the representatives from the TRC to find out what the status of that is.
I appreciate the Minister taking the question. I wasn’t too sure which Minister would take it. I want to continue on with the Minister of Justice. For the students that did not come back from these residential schools, there are stories, there are innuendos, there are assumptions, there are people telling us this is what happened to that little boy or little girl. I want to ask the Minister of Justice if he would look into his department to see where he can look with the staff that he has, to say we want to get down to the bottom of this, what is it that we need to do. Can the Minister provide some kind of a process framework to answer this question?
We’ve heard the stories as well. They’re horrible, obviously. I’m not sure that it is the Department of Justice, solely, that would be responsible for that and, like I said before, I will work with my colleague with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, but we’ll certainly also discuss it at Cabinet level and see if there’s anything that can be done, or which department would be the responsible department, or what would be the responsible organization to help.
Where can former students of the residential school go to see what can be done if there is a situation where their family member did not come back home and they need to find out what happened to that family member? Where would those people go and who would they call in this government?
I would suggest that you could approach either the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Department of Justice, or the Department of Health and Social Services and we’ll try and find a way to work together. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How would people in our communities go about this? You say they can call, but who would they call? How would this be communicated to the people in our small communities? Would it be done on TV, ads, workshops, conferences? How would they know that they can call this number to know where they can get some information? Thank you.
I don’t know off the top of my head, but I’ll talk with the Minister of Education later today and hopefully we’ll be able to provide the Member with some additional information that will help those individuals. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Transportation. In recent years we’ve deployed some modern equipment and means to keep the travelling public informed of current circumstances that would affect their travel plans. Constituents can access websites updating ferry and ice conditions. This was also provided by way of solar-powered road signs alerting travellers of everything from bison on the road to load limits on ice crossings.
Recently, a constituent, well actually, I’ll just say it was my husband, drove all the way – he’s actually Mr. Bouchard’s constituent – to Indian Cabins before he found out the road was closed down there by our border because of forest fires. I think that the idea of using these signs on the outskirts of highways to advise of things affecting the road travel is a good idea. I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation if there is any effort or plans within his department to expand the use of these solar-powered signs. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we would look at deploying those signs where we need to, but in the advance of technology we’re also keeping our website up to date for the travelling public. Oftentimes now that’s the first place people look to for information. That is on our website and it’s updated, especially with the situation taking place in the Deh Cho and affecting those communities and our roads and our ferry system, it’s important that we’re updating that continuously. That’s one place the Member could possibly look. Thank you.
The operative word in the Minister’s response is current and updated, because I used to travel the road between Hay River and Yellowknife for many years, and if you went onto the website on the weekends to find anything out about the ferry or the ice road, it wasn’t actually updated from Friday at 3 o’clock until Monday morning at 10 o’clock. Has the department undertaken any measures to resolve that so that the information is, in fact, up to the hour and current?
This past week we had people from Fort Simpson that were in Hay River for the track and field championships, and the approaches to the ferry crossings were under water and they had no real way of finding out what the current situation is. Could the Minister respond to that, the current availability of information? Thank you.
Over the weekend the website was updated on a continuous basis. It was updated because of the situation that was happening with the Liard River. As far as weather, we have somebody on every weekend updating the website. If there are events that are happening in the territory, I would expect that we’d have somebody available to update that website. I can get that level of detail for the Member on how that happens and when it happens. Thank you.
The website is one way. There’s also a 1-800 number to call for an update. The Minister says that he expects it would happen. We would like to know that it is going to happen, because again, for years when I travelled on that road, the only way to really find out what was going on at Fort Providence was to call Big River Service Station in Fort Providence. That was the only really current information you could get about what was going on there. Could the Minister confirm he expects it would happen on weekends? Can the Minister confirm that there is somebody employed to ensure that information is current at all times? Thank you.
I will find out for the Member. We also have the 1-800 number, as well, that people can call. It’s important to us that safety is the number one concern here for the travelling public. I will get that information for the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Your final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think there should be solar-powered signs at the outskirts of every community on the road system and at both of the border crossings coming into the Northwest Territories. If the department needs to procure more solar-powered signs, can the Minister assure me that he will look to northern suppliers? Thank you.
Yes, we will do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on questions from my colleague for the Deh Cho last Friday, on the cost on agriculture. The cost of transportation is a major part of nutritious food costs in our communities. By cutting transportation costs, we cut a big and an unnecessary element of the cost. Local food production is clearly the answer.
My question for the Minister of ITI is: Given the community gardens and programs for commercial agriculture expansion and start-up are helpful beginnings, what are the Minister’s immediate plans for building on this success, putting needed jobs in the communities through agriculture and reducing the cost of living? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In response to Mr. Nadli’s questions last week, we have done a great deal. We understand the importance of locally grown food. We recognize the importance of processing fish and meat locally and getting it into the local homes. We’ve been in 29 communities in the Northwest Territories on the Community Garden Initiative and that’s through the Growing Forward Fund that the federal government had. Also, I should note, we are advancing some capital investment aimed at replacing the defunct grading station in Hay River for eggs and the production of eggs in our territory. Once that is complete, eggs produced in the NWT will be able to be marketed into the wholesale, retail and food service sectors right here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for those comments. As I also mentioned in my statement on Wednesday, availability of land is a challenge for the expansion of agriculture. In response to my written question of February 16th, the Minister said that ITI will provide municipal governments with expertise, assistance and support in matters related to agriculture as and when requested. That’s fine, but what about increasing the supply of agriculture land outside municipalities? What is the department doing to identify and free up some of the vast amount of arable land that could be made available? Mahsi.
That is a good point, and I believe we need to work collectively. I need to work with my colleague from Municipal and Community Affairs. It could, in fact, be a big part of the Economic Development Strategy that we’re going to continue to pursue here in the Northwest Territories, so that we can find ways to grow the agricultural industry here in the Northwest Territories. I agree wholeheartedly with the Member on the importance of getting that sector more pronounced here in our territory, and I’ll do what I can as Minister to make sure that that happens. Thank you.
Thanks again to the Minister for those comments and the commitments. The Territorial Farmers Association is another partner I can think of that reports that access to land is indeed one of the major challenges facing its members. Will the Minister, perhaps in consult with his colleagues, commit to contacting the association and identifying the issues and opportunities to be addressed, and reporting to EDI with a plan for recommended measures? I recognize that this could also become part of the greater Economic Development Strategy, but I think I’d like to follow that track as well Thank you.
I’ve had the opportunity to sit down with the Territorial Farmers Association for a meeting, and I look forward, at the earliest opportunity, to meet with them again as we advance the Economic Development Strategy. I think we will be leaning heavily on organizations like the Territorial Farmers Association for that level of expertise and knowledge when it comes to agriculture here in the NWT and how they feel the government could help out in that regard. Certainly, they will be a part of this as we move forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. Really we are talking food security here as well as an economic function. I know we are addressing these things and Anti-Poverty Strategy and other aspects, but food security is really about lower costs. This weekend our local chicken cooperative would have ended up calling out the roosters. We had to go to sources in Ontario to find out questions we needed answered. Given solutions needed to involve many departments in a strategic cross-departmental approach to food supply, will the Minister commit to development of a food strategy as an integral element of our strategic plans to fight poverty and promote economic development? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, again, as we move forward, I think whether or not we need a food strategy per se or to be part of a larger piece like the Economic Development Strategy or many of the other support mechanisms that the department has for locally produced food and agriculture in the NWT, it certainly is something worth some consideration, though. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
