Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have some questions for the Minister of ITI, as well, about the morel mushroom industry and the gold rush, or the mushroom rush that we have going on.
My question that I have: Is the department and other departments in the GNWT, is there some sort of joint task force that’s discussing the issues that are coming from this? I would see maybe RCMP, ENR, ITI, MACA, Lands being all issues to deal with this issue. Is there a joint task force? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the department continues to work with our partners at ENR, at MACA, through the Department of Justice with the RCMP and other departments as we continue to try to get as much out of this morel opportunity as we possibly can. We can’t do this alone. There’s a number of agencies and other departments that are involved. Thank you.
Yes, I do see a couple things that ITI does, and maybe we can get more information on this this season. I know the department does some parks surveys. Are we doing surveys maybe of pickers, whether they’re local or southern? Are we getting some sort of information of how many Northerners are actually going out and doing picking? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Judging by the success of the workshops that we’ve put on with 1,200 residents taking part, we’re going to see a much greater number of local people in the Northwest Territories participating in the harvest this coming summer. You know, good ideas. I heard a good idea from Mrs. Groenewegen, another good idea with the surveys from Mr. Bouchard. We’re just moving into this. I think ideas like that, we can hopefully take those and incorporate them in our planning.
As far as whether or not we are planning a survey, I’d have to go back and see if the department has any plans to survey pickers on whether they’re local or they’re coming from the South, and I will get that information back to the Member. That is something that we will take into consideration. Thank you.
I think the Department of ITI also does exit surveys of tourists and I would see these as being… Maybe look at them as well as tourists coming into the North.
Is there a way that we could do a survey of them, even maybe, like Mrs. Groenewegen mentioned, a registration, a voluntary registration that, you know, I’ve come to the Northwest Territories to do picking? You know, I’m expected to be in the Kakisa area, that type of stuff. Maybe a registration and an exit survey of those people who are here for morel mushrooms. Thank you.
That could work if it was done at the entry to the Northwest Territories south of Fort Liard and also the 60th parallel. Most of the pickers that would come to the Northwest Territories from the South would, of course, come by vehicle, so we probably could get a good indication on numbers with a survey at those two locations. Some may come by plane. As far as surveying local pickers, that shouldn’t be too difficult to do either. So, again, it’s a fair idea and a good idea, and we will take that into consideration. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know some of these people are from different jurisdictions, but obviously they’re coming to the Northwest Territories. We know that we’re in a drought situation. They may want to live in the Northwest Territories permanently, so we should probably promote that as well.
I know already in the process that we’re seeing pressure under our ITI facilities, our parks facilities. Is there a plan for the Department of ITI to look at how they’re going to use those facilities? I know there are people who are not actually staying in those facilities but using the showers and washrooms in those types of facilities. What are we doing to deal with that type of pressure? Thanks, Mr. Speaker.
Where there’s access to a campground with facilities, contractors can charge a fee to use the facilities in the campground. I think that’s up to the contractor. The services are there. People need to pay for those services. Pickers who are in the area can utilize those services, and the contractor is going to be making more revenue as a result of that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
