Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment about the draft Agriculture Strategy the government shared with Committee earlier in the week. I also want to take this opportunity to thank the Minister and his department for the work that they have done in both the consultations that have been conducted as well as the current draft.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister share how the strategy will integrate the work of the Northern Farm Training Institute, the Aurora Research Institute, and the in-house work of the department to make the most effective use of our resources and knowledge base? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Agriculture is a very important sector to our government and part of the Mandate of the 18th Legislative Assembly. We have provided the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment with a draft Agriculture Strategy for review and look forward to hearing back from the committee. A key recommendation of the proposed strategy is that various organizations need to work together, including departmental collaboration to ensure that we all use our resources efficiently and effectively.
Another recommendation is the creation of a central repository or a common public point of information sharing. This portal will assist community advocates as multiple agencies will be contributing to shared data program. And I should also point out that we've worked very closely with all of the agencies that the Member referred to and they've played a very large part of developing our draft Agriculture Strategy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for his reply. I'm happy to hear about the portal and shared data; I'm sure that will be very useful. Mr. Speaker, what steps are included in the strategy to identify and make more land accessible for agriculture?
To date we haven't had any requests for very large areas of land for agriculture purposes but we do anticipate that happening in the future. And so the strategy does speak to potential land use within municipal boundaries and authorities. Part of the implementation will be guided by the land use and sustainability framework which serves as the underpinning of all decisions in respect to land, including the development of land for the agriculture sector in the Northwest Territories.
The issue of access to land for agriculture will be reviewed through collaborative processes with municipalities and Aboriginal governments and land use planning boards and committees, and as land claims are settlement there will certainly be more certainty in this area.
Certainly certainty is what most are looking for and that would be appreciated. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister share what steps are outlined in the strategy to develop and support education, knowledge and best practices about food production at the community level?
The draft Agriculture Strategy has many recommendations on how to develop and support educational programs and educational resource development for agriculture. We will encourage and support the development and delivery of courses for community and regional trainers. The goal with the strategy is to improve overall capacity by having more people involved in northern agriculture, and we will develop foundational safe agriculture and food production, education resources including community and private sharing agriculture and harvesting of non-animal products. And the draft Agriculture Strategy is built on five pillars, including planning, knowledge, leadership, marketing channels and access to productive resources.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for his reply. My last question, Mr. Speaker: what evaluation measures are included in the strategy to evaluate the effectiveness of our investments in agriculture, both in terms of dollars and with regard to new programs and initiatives launched under the new strategy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As Stompin' Tom would say the best test is right at the table.
---Laughter
But I agree it's important to make sure our programs are effective. We have seen increased interest in our agriculture program as more and more people are growing their own food. We're still in early days as the strategy has not been released; however, we will review the effectiveness of this strategy as we move forward into implementation.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
