Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke about the issues that are important to the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister of ITI regarding the bottled water issue we have in our communities.
We have bottled water that is flown from outside of Canada and within Canada. We have some wonderful, great lakes here, some big lakes here. Has the Minister, through his tenure as Minister of ITI, looked at how the Northwest Territories could capture this market to have bottled water in the Northwest Territories to sell in each community and each store in the North?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. David Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That sounds like a proposition for the Dragon’s Den or something. If the Member has entrepreneurs in the Sahtu – and I know there’s a number of very good entrepreneurs in the Sahtu and the communities the Member represents – that sounds like a very interesting proposition. Certainly, the Northwest Territories has a bounty of fresh water. Maybe there is an opportunity there to market that as bottled water. I appreciate the Member bringing that up.
Sometimes being in the south feels like a dragon’s den. It gets pretty hot in here.
I want to ask the Minister, other than the bottled water concept, I know that the community of Deline really wants to move on this issue; however, there were a number of barriers for them to hook up this new water plant system to look at a bottled water system and they just didn’t get the support they thought they could get from this government. I want to ask the Minister, if other initiatives in the North can have such as the eggs in Hay River, those eggs should be in each of our stores in our communities. That’s the type of initiative I’m looking for. Has the Minister embarked on a strong policy to get northern products in our stores and in our homes right across the valley?
I think issues like the Member raises are going to be front and centre through the development of our Economic Opportunities Strategy and again look forward to seeing the end result of that. Getting products that are local into local businesses and homes, I think, is very important. I have not seen a proposal about bottling water here in the Northwest Territories for local consumption and perhaps for export, but it’s certainly something I think has some promise, and if the Member wants to share that proposal with me, I would be more than happy to have a look at it.
Some time ago the community of Deline asked for this bottled water concept and they were told to come up with $200,000 or $300,000. Small communities like that just don’t have that kind of extra change in their pockets. I’m hoping the Minister would again look at that and see if that’s a possibility.
Another thing I want to ask the Minister, in terms of the potato spud captain of Norman Wells, how he’s helping small entrepreneurial people look at commercial ventures such as having some of those potatoes in some of our communities. I’m looking for the Minister to come forward to our committees and the House and say, we have a strong northern policy that will support the farmers in the North and people who want to do bottled water issues. Will the Minister bring something forward to us?
I thank the Member for raising the issue of agriculture here in the House and how important it is to many of our communities here in the NWT. The government continues to support agriculture in the NWT through the Territorial Farmers Association and other programs that we provide.
I know we have this Growing Forward 2 Fund that we’ve signed off with the federal government. It is going to provide about $6 million here in the Northwest Territories for other programs related to agriculture and the development of our agricultural centre. I believe we are looking for a type of signature project through this new funding arrangement with the federal government and it’s something that is going to be important as we move forward. I’m not quite sure if the development of a bottled water plant in Deline would fit in that, but it’s certainly something I think… It hasn’t come up since I’ve been Minister of ITI. It may have been brought forward previous to that, but I think it’s something like that is going to provide the possibility of jobs in a small community like Deline. Certainly it’s a very interesting thing.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister come forward with the openness to supporting our northern people in the products that we have, such as, you know, Great Slave Lake is one of the best places to get fish. Bring that forward to our discussion that we can support the fishermen around Great Slave Lake to bring their product into our homes and institutions. Have a government policy stating that’s the way we want to do business from here on in.
Can the Minister look at some type of creative policy that would support our people?
We have an abundance of fish in the Northwest Territories, and we’ve mentioned many times about the commercial fishing on Great Slave Lake and how we need to improve upon that.
It’s my goal over the next two and a half years to try to resurrect the commercial fishing industry on Great Slave Lake. I think we can do it. We’re going to be working with the folks in Hay River and the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation to see how we can make things better.
Obviously, with Great Bear Lake, I mean, that’s some of the best trout in this world, in Great Bear Lake. If there is an opportunity to get that fish out of Great Bear Lake in a commercial manner, again for local consumption and perhaps for export, that’s something that, again, we need to be taking a look at. It’s an opportunity for the community and it could provide a number of jobs as well in a small community.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
