Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the former Minister of Renewable Resources is aware of the dialogues that I have had with him. As recently as July, the Minister did indicate that they have been discussing the policy on walk-in freezers with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and DPW, and it is going to be a cost- shared thing. However, in communities with a population of over 300, they have received grants for walk-in freezers. Fort Providence has one, and I believe that in a lot of other communities where traditional activities are a very important part of the community life, those kinds of facilities have been established.
I understand that the policy is not in place yet, but in the event that it is put in place, I would like the department to consider Kakisa as one of the communities on their list of priorities to receive one.
I hope Members will understand that Kakisa is a very traditional community. When they go on hunts, they go as a community. In the fall when they go on moose hunts, the whole community does that during the week. In a small community like that it is pretty difficult when you have seven or eight moose and nowhere to store them. So that is one of the reasons.
The other thing is that one of the activities of Kakisa is that they do have a bit of what is known as commercial fishing. They sell fish in Hay River to the Freshwater Fish Marketing Board. What they have right now is a building that they use, and the planes or trucks bring in the ice, and they put it in this building to keep the fish fresh. But the ice does not last more than two days, so this is a continuous problem for them, to keep getting ice from the Freshwater Fish Marketing Board. If there were a walk-in freezer, it would save a bit of money on this delivery of ice from Hay River every other day.
I ask Members to support the community of Kakisa in obtaining a freezer.