WHEREAS non-timber forest products, including wild mushrooms, can offer wide-ranging health and economic benefits;
AND WHEREAS world-wide demand for gourmet mushrooms is increasing, as well as awareness of their availability, nutritional content and value as a natural resource in the Northwest Territories;
AND WHEREAS commercial wild mushroom harvest may represent a significant economic development opportunity for residents of the Northwest Territories;
AND WHEREAS a large crop of valuable morel mushrooms associated with forest fire burns is anticipated this year in areas accessible by road on traditional Aboriginal lands;
AND WHEREAS these areas are in regions with land claims currently under negotiation;
AND WHEREAS residents, including members of local Aboriginal organizations, have no regulatory mechanism to allow benefit from wild mushroom harvest, while unregulated, out-of-territory entrepreneurs are actively harvesting the resource;
AND WHEREAS in 2006, the forest management division of the Government of the Northwest Territories’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources made commitments to advance this industry, including a commitment to draft a policy paper to lead the process for developing appropriate policy and regulations for non-timber forest products by 2014;
AND WHEREAS updates to legislation to regulate the commercial harvest of wild mushrooms are still required;
AND WHEREAS this legislation is not expected to come forward in time to govern this year’s harvest;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that the Government of the Northwest Territories, prior to summer 2014, honour its commitments and work with those Northwest Territories First Nations and entrepreneurs that have an interest in harvesting morels and other mushrooms, to implement interim measures that regulate and manage the commercial harvest of wild mushrooms;
AND FURTHER, that the Government of the Northwest Territories immediately begin drafting legislation to provide for the responsible management of the wild mushroom resource and provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 60 days.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Nadli.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the seconder of the motion, the Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Robert Hawkins.
I’m presenting this motion because there’s a growing interest in wild mushrooms. Northerners are interested in the harvesting of mushrooms as a business opportunity and livelihood that complements the northern lifestyle of the outdoors.
Recently, we are witnessing people coming into parts of the NWT and harvesting mushrooms. They are taking our natural resources and leaving the NWT. Currently, there are no regulations on wild mushrooms, on morels, to manage and regulate this growing industry.
This motion asks for interim measures to be put in place before this summer’s harvesting season begins. Things such as residency criteria, pricing of seasonal harvesting licence and permits for harvesting are some suggestions that could be considered based on consultations; further, that work begins towards developing legislation that addresses non-timber forest products such as wild mushrooms.
What are wild mushrooms, morels? They are a small fungi type plant that has a growing monetary value. There are many kinds of mushrooms. This particular species of wild mushrooms, morels, referred to as morels or Morchella esculenta, are described as prize morel mushrooms and are cone-shaped sponge. They are hard to find and are commonly found in newly burnt areas after forest fires. The plant species proliferates in growth in June.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to remind the public that it is important to know the good mushrooms from the bad, poisonous mushrooms.
In terms of morel mushrooms as a product in the economic market, there is a high demand. Wild mushrooms, morels, sell at about $100 per pound, based on 2012 prices. Dried and then sold, most are destined for European restaurants.
In 2013 the Northwest Territories experienced some big forest fires. One that is of particular interest is in the area between Trout River and Jean Marie River. Besides the Mackenzie Highway cutting into the heart of the area, there are also service roads that run north and south of the highway and may provide easy access to the burnt areas.
After the forest fire of 2013, it is expected that the mushrooms, morels, will experience a bumper crop this summer. Morel mushrooms are hard to find. Recently, harvesting activities were in Behchoko, Sandy Lake and Fort Smith areas.
There is interest from local entrepreneurs in my constituency for the harvesting of wild mushrooms, morels. Like berry picking, wild mushroom harvesting complements traditional activities where you go out and harvest the bounty of the land.
This is a great opportunity in a growing industry. There are people in the NWT who harvest wild mushrooms, morels, both in Fort Smith and Yellowknife.
Recently, some communities have achieved forest management agreements with the GNWT. There is also a strong possibility of a wood pellet plant being established and planned activities for forest timber type operations. Potentially, morels could become a secondary industry for those communities that have forest management agreements.
In 2006 there was a conference on mountain timber forest products. Then, this government committed to work on the five points. Eight years later, those commitments have yet to be realized.
The wild mushroom industry is growing. The potential monetary value of wild morel mushrooms is appealing for Northerners because of the lifestyle it promotes: the great outdoors and easy pickings.
Media, such as TV, have played a part in promoting the industry. In December 2003 the future on mushroom harvesters aired on Dragon’s Den. At that time, the panelists agreed to invest in the group that harvested wild morel mushrooms that perhaps could venture in the Northwest Territories.
In closing, this motion asks that the GNWT take action in developing interim measures and respond in 60 days. Today is March 11th and June 4th is four months away and there is a need to prepare for the summer harvest. The other thing is to start working on the legislation and, in the meantime, begin examining interim measures to ensure ways to regulate and manage mushroom resources. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. I will allow the seconder to speak. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the mover of the motion, Mr. Nadli, Member for Deh Cho, for bringing forward this very important motion.
I’ll say I’ve certainly experienced good morels and I can tell you it’s always good to have good morels from time to time.
Sorry, folks, I’m here for 19 minutes, not all week.
On a serious note, it’s always good to see the government honour its commitments with First Nations and this could be a small reminder of how important that is. When you honour a small commitment, it demonstrates your ability to follow through on the big ones. We often hear about how important relationships are with First Nations. This motion speaks to the strength of that, and as I said earlier, it’s important to honour the small ones as equally as the large ones. Again, they speak to our character and other morals, by the way.
This is, as we all know, the bread basket of every economy. The NWT is no less concerned in those areas than anywhere else in Canada and certainly the world. This provides supporting mechanisms. These are small steps in helping First Nations entrepreneurs, First Nations people and even small communities get ahead by these small steps.
Mr. Speaker, what better way of putting combinations together than by putting entrepreneurial opportunities, especially with exercise and getting into the outdoors, it’s a perfect opportunity and perfect combination.
As Member Nadli said, he likens it to a traditional activity just like berry picking. This is people living their history and building on their history going forward. These traditional activities aren’t just about being Aboriginal but also about being family. We can see people getting together and away. We can see communities getting together. We can see people being people together in an important way.
I always tell my own children there are more activities out there besides video games. These are great things to do as families. Again, an important activity we sometimes find ourselves getting away from.
This also provides business. Business means opportunities, and opportunities, as we all know, are few and far between in many of our small communities. We can always do more. This is certainly one the government can help buttress by following through on that earlier commitment that we’ve all been hearing about, about honouring our commitments and contributions and moral contracts – the other moral, by the way – with respect, but moral contracts as First Nations. Here’s an opportunity; here’s a chance for the government to step forward. This could truly be a small boon to our economy. Sure, it may not glitter like diamonds, but it will certainly fill bellies and hopefully some of that money will go into their pockets and help the families along.
I see nothing wrong with this motion about helping the everyday person in small communities, by helping them harvest these morels, because I can tell you they will go a long way.
About a year ago I went to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources and I talked to him, because after seeing a local harvester in my constituency who goes out and collects mushrooms every summer, I asked him, how do you know, and he said his family taught him on which ones to pick and which ones not to pick. He went on at length about how ideal this is, about the opportunity and how they tend to just sit there and rot away. He actually asked me about saying what does our government do to identify mushrooms, both what are good, what are safe and certainly what are economical. Well, the Minister didn’t find it in his heart and find any money whatsoever to help this initiative, because all I was asking for was that the department come forward with a bit of space on their website to identify northern mushrooms so the everyday person can get out there and harvest them on their own.
Although I am sort of sidetracking to some degree, what it does speak to is the opportunity that lies before us. Obviously, I will be supporting this motion and I want to thank Member Nadli for bringing it forward. Anything we can do in this Assembly to help small economies and small communities and Aboriginal businesspeople to get ahead, I’m 100 percent behind. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the mover of the motion, Mr. Nadli, and Mr. Hawkins, for bringing it to debate here today.
When Mr. Nadli brought this to the committee here, it brought back memories of my youth, growing up in northern Alberta. I used to go pick mushrooms with my grandparents for many years. It’s a tradition that I actually haven’t thought about, and this motion actually, I guess, made me go back to my youth and go and think about the benefits of what we did back then.
On top of that, the Member indicated the Dragon’s Den CBC component that really kind of instigated my interest, and I have to go back to the archives of CBC and actually look up that episode. I was quite taken aback with the great comments. I always thought to myself, if it’s good for Dragon’s Den it should be good for the Assembly.
I like the motion because it does promote entrepreneurship, and I really like the traditional aspect that this motion talks about, allowing that type of entrepreneurialism in our communities and expanding that business unit. More importantly, I like how this motion really touches on the opportunity for NWT to look at this as a potential made-in-the-NWT stamp that we can put out there not only nationally but internationally. I think that also speaks loud and clear.
I think the motion itself brings a real simple ask to the table. It’s asking for some very simple legislation and some regulation so that this industry has an operating chance to flourish on an international market. I believe this is a fair ask on behalf of a Member and a seconder, hoping that the Cabinet and the Minister involved can come up with that ask in short order.
I really like that this is a potential for a new industry and we’ve got some great exporting opportunities ahead of us here so when you add this all up, I think this is an incredible ask and I really want to thank the Member for bringing it forward, rekindling my youth and my interest back into this type of product of the mushrooms and morels. I will be supporting this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. To the motion. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be supporting the motion and I appreciate my colleague bringing this forward.
There are, indeed, commercial opportunities out there. I myself have picked mushrooms commercially in the Northwest Territories and sold them here. There is a market out there. There are a number of species of mushrooms, several types of morels and pine mushrooms of note, matsutakes, which are very well known to the Japanese tourists that we have and are highly valued. Even to have one of those at Thanksgiving, or the equivalent of Thanksgiving, is a big deal and worth a lot. There are also various types of boletes and so on.
We know that these wild mushrooms have incredible nutritional value, some of them actually the same as dried meat in their dried form, so there’s an incredible nutritional value from these mushrooms.
However, it’s not necessarily easy because they’re not necessarily dependable crops. They vary quite a bit from year to year, over time and according to the conditions and so on, so it does take a particular type of entrepreneur, and really, wild crafters generally that make use of non-timber forest products can slot this into their bailiwick of different products that they can access when they are available so this sort of thing can provide tinctures and herbs and aromatics, serve the health and cosmetic industry as so on, as well as the nutritional industry and the gourmet food industry. In fact, we have several operating Weledeh entrepreneurs in this area right now so it does really require some oversight.
I appreciate that this motion in the House finally does call for this. The first call was through committee five years ago now, and with repeated intervals of calling for it from the various Ministers, with no action. I guess calling for it on an interim basis might be the best we can do and I’ll be supporting that, but really we need a thorough response. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This motion is very unique. I’m not too sure if I’m going to support it, because I’m allergic to mushrooms.
---Laughter
But it’s very unique and I appreciate Mr. Nadli and the seconder, Mr. Hawkins, bringing this motion forward and rekindling some of the fond memories of Mr. Dolynny as a young picker of mushrooms.
Wild mushrooms in the Northwest Territories… I mean, we have a lot of forest fires and there is lots of opportunity in the Northwest Territories. Anything we can do to support communities and looking at some analysis to be done by the government to look to see if this is something we can use in our community, by all means if that’s something… I mean, a lot of people certainly use these mushrooms for their own means.
I don’t know if I’m going to be abstaining or supporting the motion, because of my situation. However, I thank Mr. Nadli and Mr. Hawkins for bringing this motion to the table.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I rise to say that I will be supporting the motion. It’s new and unique and almost like an emerging opportunity for the communities to work with the experienced mushroom pickers that do come up from down south, and hopefully we can learn from it and make it our own homegrown industry there.
Even with business, we say you have to work with Aboriginal communities, you have to work with Aboriginal businesses, and I think this is another fine example of it. The motion is just calling for the Minister to act quickly – there is potentially a boom in mushrooms this coming summer – to just set up some regulations or some kind of instrument that the people who are coming from the South to work with the communities, to set some regulations around it. The concern, of course, is that experience has shown in other jurisdictions that when they’re unregulated, they do leave garbage behind on their picking sites, so those are the kinds of things we want to voice. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the motion. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government will be looking at trying to comply with what’s been requested in the motion. There has been work done by ITI and MACA, trying to regulate something that we don’t have the legal authority over right now. The Forest Management Act is going to be redone in its entirety and that will recapture it in the next coming piece of work. Now that the Wildlife Act is completed, that’s next on our list.
I do want to point out, as Mr. Bromley noted, that this is a profession that is very well organized from down south. They track fires, which the years after fires the morels tend to appear. They come in and are highly mechanized and they work very hard and very quickly and they follow the fires so there is an opportunity, but as Mr. Bromley said, we’re going to have to get organized. People are going to have to be prepared to be mobile. But we will do our best to comply. While we are bound by the 120 days, we will do our best to try to comply with the requested 60. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. I will allow the mover of the motion to have closing remarks, if he’d like. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank my colleagues. This initiative goes to the very heart of community economies. It has always been the standard of this government to try to develop the traditional economies of hunting, fishing and trapping of the smaller communities. This is a step in the right direction. If we support this initiative, then we’re supporting that very concept.
There are entrepreneurs out there who would like to work with each other or else at least get the northern spirit collectively in trying to look at partnership arrangements. Hopefully, this will set the stage for cooperation and partnership in terms of taking advantage of this growing industry. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.
By the authority given to me as Speaker by Motion 10-17(5), I hereby authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment to consider business before the House.
