Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witness to the Chamber. Would the Premier please introduce her witness?
Thank you, Madam Chair. On my right is Mr. Martin Goldney. He is the Cabinet Secretary and the deputy minister for the Executive and Indigenous Affairs. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Just to go back to what we decided to go through the mandate, Members, you will have 10 minutes per priority. We are going back to "Increase food security through locally produced, harvested, and affordable food." Questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I had someone approach me, actually, last night who has 48 chickens here in Yellowknife. They would like to give away some of the eggs or maybe even sell some of the eggs locally, but there seem to be some issues around that. How are the items here going to help that individual be able to sell eggs locally? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This might be a little bit more difficult. I kind of feel sorry for the neighbours, 25 chickens next door. We are going to be amending our own regulatory framework so that we can remove barriers to developing food production businesses. Lands will be reviewing its policy and regulations in that regard. However, this might also be a municipal issue, Madam Chair. Therefore, we would need to work with the municipal government. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, I don't think there is a municipal issue here, at least in this particular instance. Maybe I could just get a little bit more detail about what some of the barriers are right now with the current regulatory framework when it comes to local food production. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. If we can direct the question to the Minister of ENR.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Sorry. Thank you, Madam Chair. When we are looking at barriers, it is about trying to work with the communities to see what they want to do, what they want to harvest, and then again it is making sure that we are doing things within the right act, the framework and policies, moving forward. Again, it is about also training some of the staff. It is a mentoring process to it. Again, so these are some of the challenges from ENR's aspect of it. It is about how we work with the governments.
On my other half, it is about the ability to deal with the land. Again, it comes down to our regulations and how we can fix some of these things about agriculture and how do we use that land and how we can work with them to get it. Right now, we have really high rates, but that is from the previous process that we had done, so that is part of the regulation. We are trying to work on those things. Those are a couple of the challenges that we see moving forward.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I think I will start over again. This is a guy who has already got chickens. He has got them here in Yellowknife. There seem to be some issues around food handling, maybe education, inspection stuff. This is not an ENR issue. As I understand, it is probably an environmental health issue, which is health and social services. What are the current barriers, and what are we going to do to improve food handling, inspection services, and so on to allow for local food production and retail? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I apologize for that. There are quite a few departments. You are absolutely right; the department of health will be having to look at some of their regulatory frameworks, as well. For example, people who might want to provide produce or canned preserves in the community market, we would need to do some kitchen because, right now, there is a requirement for an industrial kitchen. Those are things we need to look at: if you are small production, do you need to have that? The other one I know from running the homeless shelter was being able to utilize, I hate to use the term "road kill," is kind of what I know it as, and so that was always an issue, and so meat spoiling because we could not use that meat when, in my case, women were hungry. Those are some of the issues that we need to address as we move forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. That is, I think, more of what I was looking for, and that is probably what this individual is also looking for. I want to go to work on Nutrition North. I do not have any difficulty with what is proposed here, but I think the other thing that is missing, that I do not see here, is that we need to work with Nunavut and Yukon to put pressure on the federal government to design a much better Nutrition North program that does not reward retailers, that actually rewards perhaps producers, local producers, and consumers of food, not retailers. Is that something that this government is going to be doing, as well? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Absolutely. The three territories have over the years, many years is my understanding, developed strong partnerships when we go to speak to the federal government. We will continue to do so, and I will make a commitment to bring this issue forward to the other two Premiers. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. While I am on a roll, another general observation I would like to offer with this particular mandate item is: there are a few deliverables here, but I had hoped to see some actual targets. Are we going to increase local food production by 25 percent by the end of four years or whatever the target is? I am just wondering: do we actually track local food production and consumption in a way where it is measurable, where we could set targets? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. At this point, we cannot put targets such as "improve food production by 25 percent" because we haven't done a base analysis of what actually we are producing. You cannot increase things when you do not know where you stand at the moment. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, okay. Then that is clearly something we need to do, and it needs to be in here. Unfortunately, we cannot change this right now, but I would really encourage, then, that we develop a system of measuring local food production because, if we don't have a way of measuring it, how can we know whether any of these things in here are actually going to improve and increase local food production. Can I get a commitment out of the Premier that we will develop a system of measuring local food production and consumption? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In my opening comments on the mandate, there was a paragraph that says we also recognize that, to better report and meaningfully measure progress, in many cases, we need to establish indicators and improve program evaluation. The work we do towards ambitious goals set in the mandate will include the establishment of new indicators and a greater focus on program evaluation. Madam Chair, as I have said many times, one of my specialties is an accreditation in best practices. Therefore, we are going to be doing more measurable outcomes throughout the GNWT over the next four years. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Great to get that commitment out of the Premier, that she is going to be working and her Cabinet colleagues will be working towards developing ways of measuring local food production and consumption. That was, I think, something that we had recommended in the last Assembly as well when we reviewed the agricultural policy or strategy that was developed in the last Assembly. No further comments, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Madam Premier, did you have any comments? Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will take that as a comment, and I am looking forward, also, to having measurable outcomes for a lot of areas in the government. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Madam Chair. I am really encouraged by this mandate, because it just says "small communities." The small community harvesters, they have harvesters' programs that help people go out on the road. Yes, we do have roadkill in Fort Providence. We get the bison. I have had it myself. We made dry meat out of it. It was all good.
This would really help if you had a survey of the hospitals or centres, institutions, of the people who attend those situations, what type of food they would like. It is different all over, for the Dene people, the Inuvialuit. They have certain types of taste, but even for the small communities, because I really hope that they have testing and inspection stations that are in the communities, because that is where the people are, who will do the harvesting and whatnot of the foods.
I am really hoping that that will happen. I just don't know if that is, kind of, the game plan moving forward, or else there is going to be a central station that you have to send your meat to so that it is harvested somewhere else and not in the small communities where you have a lot of harvesters there. We get lots of people who go out on the river, and they can make the dry fish, too, the dry meat out on the river. Plus, some of the elders, too, they like soft foods. There are soft foods like porcupine, the beaver. They like to have boiled fish, probably, in the hospital system. We have to think of all those areas when we are talking about increasing food security.
I am just wondering if you could paint a picture for me, because this will be probably some kind of report by the time that we are done our session. I wish that this could be escalated to move ahead. Can you paint a picture for me of what you envision from your department on how you are going to move on this mandate? Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the comments. The Member is absolutely correct. A lot of the harvesting happens in the smaller communities, fishing, hunting, et cetera, but we also have a market in the regional centres as well, for example, our community gardens. I recognize that it is totally different, so this mandate will go across all regions and all small communities.
We talked about how one of our mandates, as well, is regional decision-making, but it is bigger than that. It is about really looking, when we allocate positions, where they are best situated. Thank you, Madam Chair. We will take into consideration the needs of people in small communities as we develop positions.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you. Just a final comment regarding the regulatory framework, that I hope they really keep the small communities in mind when you are setting your legislation and everything, because I know that government has a hard time thinking of the small people and how they can move forward, when they are thinking about locally produced and harvested foods. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we will take into consideration as we develop the programs, as we develop all programs, where they are best situated. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. With respect to meat inspection, in the past, we had a pig farm there in Hay River, which provided that for sale, and there were regulations in place at that time. Are those regs still relevant to what we have in this mandate? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. If I can direct the question to the Minister of Health and Social Services on the current regulations. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I do want to talk about, today, the agriculture strategy, which maybe some of the Members are referring to. It is the public health regulations. The question we ask ourselves is: what are we doing as a department to support the agricultural strategy and food security? Our department helps social services, along the Departments ENR, ITI, and Lands, we are all working together to implement the agricultural strategy. Our main goal here is to ensure that public health is protected in the production and sale of local foods. Also, our work supports the priority of this Assembly, of course, to increase food security by facilitating the local production of food and the sale of food.
If I can, I do want to speak a little bit about the Food Establishment Safety Regulations. Changes to the Northwest Territories Food Establishment Safety Regulations under the Public Health Act came into force on August 15, 2019. These changes supported the last Assembly's priority to move forward on this agricultural strategy and also support this Assembly's priority to increase food security. The changes made it clear that farm gate sales of locally grown, low-risk foods are allowed. It also makes it easier for people to sell locally grown and home-produced foods from home and at farmers' markets.
Those are some of the things that our department is working on. I know that we are responsible for the health act and the Food Establishment Safety Regulations, so I just wanted to bring that forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess the question was: the meat inspection regulations, are they still relevant today? I think they were in place when we had a pig farm in Hay River, and there was processing going on. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My understanding is that, yes, the meat regulations are still in place, but that is what we are going to be doing: reviewing and amending all regulatory frameworks to look at all barriers. We have to be conscious that safety has to also take a play in that. We are not just going to allow a free-for-all. There has to be a safety element, but some of our regulations might be a little bit too stringent in this modern age, so we will be looking at them all. Thank you, Madam Chair.
