Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to continue on this mini theme day and the spontaneity of the issue. The issue being raised today is simply how do we promote agriculture in the Northwest Territories and produce something that’s of value and useful, Mr. Speaker.
One of the initiatives brought forward by the federal government, in partnership with the Minister of ITI, is the Growing Forward Program. If I understand it correctly, it’s a three or four-year program. It’s at $3.2 million. But in speaking to industry people, there’s a fair bit of confusion around. You know, there are five programs, are the programs tied together, and the caps on the programs of up to $10,000, and that’s a real issue, because if you’re trying to invest into net initiatives, that’s hardly any money to even bothering to get them started. So maybe if the Minister could provide some enlightenment around that situation so we can find out, are there caps of $10,000 and are the programs tied together to be useful, because otherwise they’re not. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s a number of programs that are covered under the Growing Forward Initiative, and I could go through and list them all or...These include small scale foods, which has a budget of $700,000 over the period of the agreement; northern hydro foods, which has a budget of $380,000; commercial game harvest, $320,000; traditional harvest, $1.160 million; inter-settlement trade, $120,000; environment, $40,000; Bison Strategy, $200,000; national strategic initiatives, $334,000. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Minister for providing that type of detail. Mr. Speaker, I think part of that speaks to some of this problem. As I said in my Member’s statement, there is potential to produce beef, pork, chicken, et cetera, and, as we all know, there is reindeer farming and even the Minister had highlighted, probably from his time of knowing about the cattle industry in his home area of Providence, Mr. Speaker. But in the programs that he described, there’s very little money set out for the traditional aspect of agriculture and development, of growing things and producing farm animals. Mr. Speaker, how much money is there available for those types of activities and is there a cap on that, that $10,000 cap I referred to? Thank you.
I thought the Member was asking me about the Growing Forward Agreement, but I guess he’s looking at other programs that are offered by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Certainly we have other programs through our SEED program, and I think that’s where he’s come up with this $10,000 cap. One of the programs under SEED, there’s a cap of $10,000.
We have other contribution programs, applications programs. We even have loan programs. So we have flexibility in working with the different people that are interested in agriculture.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister describes the program as SEED, and that’s quite rightly so, because that’s how some of the folks producing things sort of say that the grants are, about this big, because they seem pretty small. That’s a good description, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, trying to get some understanding of this Growing Forward Program, why is hunting and trapping under the Growing Forward Program? If it is so, could you clarify that here today? Because that’s a real issue for somebody out there who wants to tap into this and, as I mentioned, there’s the cranberry industry out there, and those types of things need real solid investment. So could we get some clarity on that? Thank you.
I think the definitions of traditional harvest can be interpreted quite broadly so that it’s not restricted to specifically hunting and fishing, for example. So on that basis, it can be used for a number of different purposes. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If there was someone out there today in this existing market, or I should say in this existing climate, wanting to make this type of investment to develop a greenhouse, produce local herds, maybe some vegetables, potatoes, that type of thing, what type of program would the Minister recommend to be useful without a cap in order for them to be able to get enough money to do something useful? Thank you.
Certainly we would like to approach it on a businesslike basis, so we have a number of loan programs, a number of contribution programs that we can work with interested individuals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
