Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to my Member’s statement today, I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Under the declaration that was signed in 2010 on prevention and promotion by our Minister of Health, one of the guidelines is health promotion has many approaches that should be used. It talks about helping people learn and practice healthy ways of living.
Thinking outside the box, I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment if there are any types of programs that he’d be looking at introducing into the school that deal with healthy eating and weight loss such as the Growing Food program that is currently in the school that we saw in today’s Inuvik Drum.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. First, I must commend the Growing Food initiative in Inuvik. That’s a very important initiative that could be delivered as part of the programming into the community, into the schools and so forth. There are a number of programs that we have initiated such as Drop the Pop. We have a 925 intake, the highest participation rate yet. This is an area that we are very proud of. The East Three School, the secondary café, is also serving healthy, hot lunches. Those are just some of the initiatives that we have undertaken.
There are also school fund guidelines in development of Healthy Choices. We are also currently working closely with MACA and also Health and Social Services to provide more information on healthy foods and local food production such as traditional foods, vegetable fact sheets. I can provide this important list to the Members for their review.
We do know that healthy nutrition and active lifestyles go hand in hand, but sometimes it’s the nutrition that kind of takes a side to the active living and we have to start educating our students on healthy eating, but also teach them how to start producing their own foods such as this Growing Food program in Inuvik. Is there any other possibility that we can start creating this Growing Food program in other schools in other communities across the territory? Has the Minister looked at that? Also, I am aware of the no junk food policy that all the schools have.
The information I have is that we are exploring those areas. There are certain communities such as Hay River, Fort Smith, and Whati is another community, and other communities that have initiated Growing Food. This is an area where there’s a lot of interest from my department and other departments, as well, the interdepartmental working coordination. I can provide the update on the latest status from the coordination of the three or four departments that we’ve been working on.
We all know that there’s a high cost of living in the Northwest Territories, and the further you get up and the further the food has to travel to get to the communities, sometimes when the fruits and vegetables get there they’re already turning brown. This is a great opportunity for students to learn about agriculture, learn about growing their own food, create some type of mental wellness as well as create some active living.
Would the Minister be willing to look at putting this in part of some type of curriculum for the students, that it becomes part of practical work in one of the courses and look at the options of making that part of the curriculum? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Member that this is a huge opportunity for us to look at, is the active growing throughout the Northwest Territories. We realize the higher cost of living the further up north you are. Part of the healthy choices that we are working on within our department, MACA and Health and Social Services, we have identified certain areas of initiatives, targets. What the Member is referring to is actual curriculum that he wants us to potentially explore. By all means, I will be directing my department to explore those options and those key areas. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Mr. Speaker, I also understand that the Aurora College is proposing a Northern Farming Training Institute through the Aurora College as a program. To take this further, we can actually look at probably creating that type of curriculum in the schools.
Inuvik has been doing a fantastic job. They’ve already planted in the fall. They have everything prepared over the summer. They actually go into the greenhouse, when the greenhouse is available, and it allows the students to continue to volunteer.
Looking at that type of curriculum and working with the Aurora College on what they’re looking at proposing, is the Minister willing to work with Aurora College, try to modify the program and create some type of curriculum within the schools in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, this particular initiative would have to be undertaken by various parties that will be involved, whether it be Inuvik, the schools and also the college and my department. This is an area that has been addressed to our attention on a couple of occasions already. We are definitely exploring it. We will work closely with the college. I will be presenting that to the college at the next board meeting. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
