Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the 16th Assembly draws to a close, I’ve had an opportunity to again review the list of goals that I had set out during my time as MLA. I’m pleased to say that many of the items and issues have a checkmark beside them. But, Mr. Speaker, there’s one item that I’m sad to say has not been achieved, and that is an NWT agricultural policy.
Our cost of living is high, partially due to the cost of transporting food to our communities, as my colleague Mr. Yakeleya has referred to today. The Territorial Farmers’ Association, with membership that runs from south to north and east to west across our territory, is doing an amazing job of keeping the potential of NWT agriculture on the radar, but we still need an NWT agricultural policy, a policy that considers issues such as taxes on land used for agriculture.
A couple of people in Hay River who have been very, very vocal proponents of agriculture in the North recently bought a quarter section of land near Peace River and their annual taxes on 160 acres is $80. This is the kind of consideration that a jurisdiction neighbouring us pays to promoting agriculture.
We also need a policy that considers things like the availability of purple gas for farm and harvesting practices, the licensing of farm vehicles and registering of them at affordable rates. We also need to recognize the consideration of identifying parcels of land in our land use plans for future agricultural purposes. There is no reason why this can’t be done. We have fertile land. If there’s one thing we have lots of in the Northwest Territories it’s land. Even if it was land leased in unsettled claim areas, these lands could be farmed. There’s no reason why we can’t be driving to Yellowknife and see waves of grain blowing in the wind, but there does not seem to be a will for this government to form any kind of an overarching policy that would encourage that.
Some people think that this is a South Slave issue. It is not, when you look at the communities that historically produce food for their regions and regions beyond, when you consider the thousands of pounds of potatoes that were produced in Norman Wells this past year.
Mr. Speaker, our long days of daylight, the land that we have, the desire of our communities to look at greener ways of living are all reasons why this government should make it a high priority in the 17th Assembly to finally put together an agricultural policy, an overarching policy for the Northwest Territories. It is long overdue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
