Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out a way to work my agricultural policy Member’s statement into a question to someone on the other side of the House. I think I’m going to direct it to the Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.
Mr. Speaker, I have listened to my colleague again today and many, many times in the past, Mr. Yakeleya, talk about the cost of living regarding food in the communities. I, first of all, have to thank the government for the initiatives they have taken. There is an employee in Hay River who works for ITI. His name is Gene Hachey. He is overseeing an NWT Community Gardening Program and this can be expanded. This is one little aspect of agriculture in the Northwest Territories.
But, Mr. Speaker, I have come across a letter that has been provided to me and I would like to just read a little excerpt from it. This is from a very well-known Northerner, Ruby Jumbo, and she’s saying that Somba Ke is developing a wellness plan, and during the first phase community members want to develop a three-year wellness program. As nutrition was identified as a priority, we are seeking help to investigate the possibilities of developing agriculture in our community. So I found that the Minister’s questions today in response to Mr. Yakeleya were very interesting, because we sit here on our high horse and say everybody should be making healthy choices, they should be buying nutritious food, they should stay away from junk food. But the reality of it is that in a lot of the communities that are off road and in remote regions, the cost of those nutritious foods can be prohibitive, and we have communities that are now reaching to this government and saying nutrition is a priority, we think we could grow some of our own food.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if there’s any correlation between the activities of his department to increase and encourage healthy eating and nutrition with the activities of ITI, for example, with regard to market gardening and growing food in the North for Northerners. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. They are, of course, related. The North has a very long history of agriculture throughout most of the Northwest Territories, up the valley where there is, as was indicated, rich land, and there is a resurgence of interest in many communities to take advantage of that opportunity to grow many, many crops. I was in Norman Wells and saw the very impressive greenhouses that were up there and the variety of crops that were being grown, as well as flowers. There is a correlation between healthy living and being able to eat your produce out of a garden as a summer pastime, and root crops that you can put away that would take you far into the winter. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that there is not a community in the Northwest Territories that could not benefit from community gardens and greenhouses, and some assistance and an overarching policy of this government to encourage communities to make an effort to grow some of their own food, some of their own nutritious food. I would suggest that we do not do enough about that initiative. We don’t do enough to encourage that. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, although we are in the last days of this government, again, to look at those renewable resources that could go a long way towards assisting with the health and well-being of northern residents. Thank you.
The good news is, is that while this Legislature may be dissolved in the next few weeks, a lot of the good, all the good programs and all the good work that has been done by government and by this Assembly will continue on until the Assembly is elected, and that Assembly will decide if they are going to continue those initiatives or change them or supplement them.
I agree with the Member. We can always do more. Mr. Bromley has made many, many statements about the need for self-sufficiency. We all agree with that. That’s why we have invested so much money in alternate energy. We are looking at biomass strategies. We have community gardening programs in ITI. We are working with Education to make the right choices with active living, and with Transportation and MACA. So, yes, these will continue and, yes, we could do more. Thank you.
It always escapes me that we, as a government, can figure out how to levelize the cost of liquor so you can buy liquor in Inuvik for the same price as you can buy it in Yellowknife, but we can’t be proactive when it comes to assisting, encouraging, and aiding people in undertaking activities that would see them more ready and affordable access to healthy and nutritious food. But that’s another whole topic, Mr. Speaker.
I’d like to, I guess, just confirm again that going forward we will leave on the public record that as a government we can and will be more proactive about encouraging communities to be more self-reliant and to pursue the lifestyle of healthy choices and healthy food at affordable rates to address the cost of living in the North, that this will be, if not accomplished by this government, a legacy of this government going forward. Thank you.
The Member and I have served now in four Assemblies together. This issue has been a dominate theme in every one of those and I would suggest will continue to be a dominant theme in the 17th Assembly going forward. So we take the Member’s point and assure her that this issue will be there.
There are positive things we can do, many that don’t cost enormous amounts and aren’t requiring new technology, just simple decisions by people to make those choices and put in those gardens and such. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
