Thank you, Mr. Speaker-elect. Communities without all-weather roads are particularly affected by the high cost of food. These costs are affected by a complex set of variables; however, through a collaborative approach between Cabinet and Regular Members, community groups and residents, we can find solutions to improve the availability of affordable healthy food options for families and children.

Our efforts should focus both on the effort of lowering the cost of food itself and changes that result in more income for our residents. Part of the answer includes investing in infrastructure so that we can lower the cost of transporting food to communities, and the energy costs contribute to high food prices. For example, when I was in Colville Lake, they have the highest food costs anywhere in the Northwest Territories. If they order food from Edmonton, it's handled 12 times between Edmonton and Colville Lake. Those kinds of problems exist.

Part of it also includes promoting more efforts to produce food locally and to support the northern fishing industry. As a government, we fund harvester programs. Those harvester programs are very successful in having harvesters go out and hunt and trap and fish. As a child, growing up in Fort Providence, our whole world existed on foods, subsistence. We would catch rabbits, eat, hunt, fish, and anything we caught the family would eat it.

Also, agriculture is very important and the final component is, now that we will have a very improved, a very good ability to work with the new federal government to improve Nutrition North. When I used to work with Indian Affairs, Nutrition North was a very successful program and I think it needs to be expanded. I think we need to find a way to go back to the start of the program when the subsidy went directly to the northern resident. That seemed to work very well. When they changed it, the objective kind of changed.

We also need to increase the northern resident deduction so people have more money in their pocket and they will be able to buy more food or grow more food. Community gardens are very important. Everybody used to have community gardens, and I think by having those, that would really improve the availability of food. Thank you.