Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for the past few days, I've used my Member's statements to talk about Nutrition North. As stated in my statements, this program is not working for my riding. To add to this, we have seen numerous reports and articles about the challenges this program faces across the North. Mr. Speaker, can the Premier inform this house which department is working with the federal government to make this program work better for small and isolated communities in the North? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The Honourable Premier.
Mr. Speaker, the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs has been monitoring what the federal government has been doing with Nutrition North, and Health and Social Services provides nutritional education information on behalf of the federal government to the tune of about $375,000 a year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Premier for his answer. Mr. Speaker, in previous sittings, we spoke about the potential of going to the federal government, and asking if we could take over this program. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister advise this House if he has had the opportunity to discuss this idea with the Minister or the Prime Minister in regards to Nutrition North?
I have had the opportunity to discuss Nutrition North with Minister Bennett on several occasions. We offered to take over the program if the accompanying money would be transferred with it. The federal government has been non-committal. They appear to prefer to deliver it themselves. They have had a number of reviews, and they even have their own advisory board, so it appears they will be in business for a while.
I thank the Premier for his answer. It is unfortunate the federal government is going to look after this program because it is hurting a number of northern communities, especially in my riding. Mr. Speaker, will the Premier work with his Ministers to come up with a plan that we can take to the federal government to address issues of communities who don't have stores or have challenges such as transportation and freight issues, or do not have stores at all if the federal government allows them to?
The Nutrition North appears to have one program which is a retailer food subsidy, where they provide subsidies to retailers that provide nutritious foods to the communities. Having said that, cost of living, food security, are all issues that are high-priority for our government, and we are always looking for ways to improve in those areas to reduce the cost of living, and also to make more nutritious foods available to the communities even if they are not included on the Nutrition North list of communities. Right now, there are now 15 Northwest Territories communities that are now included. We are prepared to work together to find a way to get the federal government to engage and invest, we would be pleased to do that as well.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Premier for hearing that. My big thing is, my concern, I have two communities who do not have stores. They do not have access to food, so that is probably a big challenge for them. In regards to the residents that have commercial gardens, will the Premier work with the Minister of ITI to come up with a plan so that food can be subsidized so that they can sell their product to the residents of the NWT on a level playing field? In other words, look at the opportunity for Nutrition North to subsidize some of our local farmers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The federal government as I have said, only provides a retailers' food subsidy. Right now, they are not providing subsidies for other sources of food production. We did, as part of signing on to the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, we will be meeting, and are meeting with Agriculture Canada to find ways to develop agriculture in the Northwest Territories. Those that are interested in dairy, chicken, turkey, we will have to find other sources because of the fact that that is a closed door other than existing farmers, but we will be negotiating with Agriculture Canada to look at other forms of agriculture. As a government, we have developed a number of strategies to help improve in the area of food security. We have an agricultural strategy. We have a fishery strategy. We have a small-scale garden program where we now have, all communities of the North have small-scale community gardens.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
