Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are following up on my Member’s statement for Minister Miltenberger, Environment and Natural Resources. It is anticipated by mushroom experts that this summer’s harvest of morels will be the largest ever, this spring’s harvest. The industry that last year brought in a few million dollars is set to bring in exponentially more and perhaps for years to come.
Can the Minister indicate what plans are underway to capitalize on this renewable resource harvesting opportunity? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are going to build off of the work that was done last summer as we started to mobilize to be more efficient, organized and coordinated with morel mushrooms. Just today we have a legislative proposal to make a modest amendment to the Forestry Act that would give authority to do the work and address some of the issues that the Member raised. That will be making its way to committee. If there is willingness, we can get that operational by May. The Member raises good points about timeliness. We are also at work in terms of policies and regulations, one way or the other that will go into place, but it’s getting them out in time. So that work between ENR and ITI and with MACA is underway. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. It sounds like he heard my Member’s statement. I appreciate that. We have a challenge here and I’m just wondering what the Minister’s early thinking is on handling it, given that these things need to be in place in the communities, available in the communities and so on. Thank goodness it’s an electronic age, I guess. By May 1st, that’s about seven weeks from now. Is this doable, and if it isn’t, how will the Minister handle that situation? Will there be a phase-in period or something? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we believe it’s doable. Whether it will be fully operational with everything that needs to be done is an issue of some debate, but we do commit to getting the work done. We will be better than last year. If we get that legislative change through, it will allow us to really structure ourselves over the next few years as we rewrite the Forestry Act in its entirety. Thank you.
I know the Minister is aware that we are in a vulnerable situation. We don’t want to undermine the industry from the very start, so I’m sure there will be sensitivity to that. While most of our mushrooms are world-class, clean and safe to eat, some areas that have been tested showed high concentrations of contaminants. Areas near Tibbitt Lake and west of Yellowknife, for example, may not be safe. World markets will test morels from the NWT as they have done in the past. Findings of contaminated morels would make it hard for the mushroom industry to rebound from the negative publicity. This has happened in areas of the world too.
Does the Minister have any plans in place to test mushrooms and soil and to restrict harvesting in areas that could present a health hazard? Mahsi.
My understanding is that, in fact, not a lot of jurisdictions set themselves up to regulate the mushroom market after fires. So we are looking at some places like, I believe, Alaska, but there aren’t a lot of best practices out there.
The issue of contaminated soils, I have to commit to the Member that I will follow up with the department to see what the intention is in the areas around Yellowknife that the Members have highlighted so that we, in fact, avoid issues if we’re going to get into this in a big way of having one batch of contaminated mushrooms possibly ruin the market for the whole Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that commitment. In fact, it’s because jurisdictions are not doing the testing that the industry now does it because they’re liable, of course.
Let me see if I can get this right. There is a portable, high quality X-ray florescence, XRF, high count rate DELTA Premium heavy metal analyzer available that can answer the Minister’s needs. It provides a response on what the contaminant load is within a few minutes at 95 percent accuracy. It’s available from Vancouver for $40,000 U.S., and it takes four to six weeks to be on site. Now, we would need this in the order of seven to nine weeks from today.
I’m wondering if the Minister would also commit to looking into that modest investment for this potentially very large industry and resolving things just like that.
If the Member can rattle off that name without looking at his paper again, I will commit to looking at that. All joking aside, I will add that to the list that I have to follow up on with the department. Though, I would be interested to see if the Member could actually rattle that name off without looking at that paper.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
