We have our normal tool kit of business programs that are available to anybody who wants to pursue farming. We’ve gone and met with Arctic Farmer, for example, I’ve been to Hay River on numerous occasions, I’ve attended meetings of the Territorial Farmers’ Association, so we are definitely aware of the potential for agriculture and we are looking to find ways to provide additional support to those people who are interested in getting into the agricultural activities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate those comments from the Minister. I’m glad to hear he’s out there and becoming aware of this issue. That’s certainly the place to start. In fact, the Territorial Farmers’ Association have indicated to us that better communication with the Minister and the department would help them build on the opportunities that may be out there.

The Minister has indicated that he could approach land claim governments that are negotiating land claims through the interim land agreements that are in place right now. And that’s what we’re all about here today, Mr. Speaker, is developing the political will to do this. There are a million things we could be doing. Will the Minister approach those governments and establish what lands they would be willing to zone agricultural under long-term lease conditions? Thank you.

As a government, we have a process for participating in the various land claims and self-government organizations, and we do have a process for identifying issues for our negotiators to raise. Certainly I’ll communicate the Member’s interests to the Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that commitment. I’ll look forward to that enthusiastic endorsement and some action from this department.

On the last one, the off-road fuel rebates have not been provided to the Territorial Farmers and that’s a big one. Obviously they’re paying the non-motive fuel tax, or the motive fuel tax and this is crippling the organization. There’s clear opportunity for providing some rebates and addressing that question. Will the Minister commit to getting that straightforward resolution taken care of? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This is an issue that has been raised by other sectors such as the fishermen, the trappers, and this is something that I’ll raise with my colleague, the Minister of Finance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to continue on this mini theme day and the spontaneity of the issue. The issue being raised today is simply how do we promote agriculture in the Northwest Territories and produce something that’s of value and useful, Mr. Speaker.

One of the initiatives brought forward by the federal government, in partnership with the Minister of ITI, is the Growing Forward Program. If I understand it correctly, it’s a three or four-year program. It’s at $3.2 million. But in speaking to industry people, there’s a fair bit of confusion around. You know, there are five programs, are the programs tied together, and the caps on the programs of up to $10,000, and that’s a real issue, because if you’re trying to invest into net initiatives, that’s hardly any money to even bothering to get them started. So maybe if the Minister could provide some enlightenment around that situation so we can find out, are there caps of $10,000 and are the programs tied together to be useful, because otherwise they’re not. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s a number of programs that are covered under the Growing Forward Initiative, and I could go through and list them all or...These include small scale foods, which has a budget of $700,000 over the period of the agreement; northern hydro foods, which has a budget of $380,000; commercial game harvest, $320,000; traditional harvest, $1.160

million; inter-settlement trade, $120,000; environment, $40,000; Bison Strategy, $200,000; national strategic initiatives, $334,000. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Minister for providing that type of detail. Mr. Speaker, I think part of that speaks to some of this problem. As I said in my Member’s statement, there is potential to produce beef, pork, chicken, et cetera, and, as we all know, there is reindeer farming and even the Minister had highlighted, probably from his time of knowing about the cattle industry in his home area of Providence, Mr. Speaker. But in the programs that he described, there’s very little money set out for the traditional aspect of agriculture and development, of growing things and producing farm animals. Mr. Speaker, how much money is there available for those types of activities and is there a cap on that, that $10,000 cap I referred to? Thank you.

I thought the Member was asking me about the Growing Forward Agreement, but I guess he’s looking at other programs that are offered by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Certainly we have other programs through our SEED program, and I think that’s where he’s come up with this $10,000 cap. One of the programs under SEED, there’s a cap of $10,000.

We have other contribution programs, applications programs. We even have loan programs. So we have flexibility in working with the different people that are interested in agriculture.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister describes the program as SEED, and that’s quite rightly so, because that’s how some of the folks producing things sort of say that the grants are, about this big, because they seem pretty small. That’s a good description, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, trying to get some understanding of this Growing Forward Program, why is hunting and trapping under the Growing Forward Program? If it is so, could you clarify that here today? Because that’s a real issue for somebody out there who wants to tap into this and, as I mentioned, there’s the cranberry industry out there, and those types of things need real solid investment. So could we get some clarity on that? Thank you.

I think the definitions of traditional harvest can be interpreted quite broadly so that it’s not restricted to specifically hunting and fishing, for example. So on that basis, it can be used for a number of different purposes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If there was someone out there today in this existing market, or I should say in this existing climate,

wanting to make this type of investment to develop a greenhouse, produce local herds, maybe some vegetables, potatoes, that type of thing, what type of program would the Minister recommend to be useful without a cap in order for them to be able to get enough money to do something useful? Thank you.

Certainly we would like to approach it on a businesslike basis, so we have a number of loan programs, a number of contribution programs that we can work with interested individuals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to the Arctic Red River Outfitters and, more importantly, the Mackenzie River Outfitters who through the land claims process there were lands negotiated in those areas, there were agreements signed in regard to access agreements with the outfitters who were present at the time of the claims being settled. There were agreements made and also in the land claim agreements, in the Gwich’in agreement in regard to 12.7.4 which talks about commercial natural activities and commercial guiding outfitting activities respecting hunting and sport fishing which gives the Gwich’in exclusive rights to get into that business, but also to be able to obtain those licences once they, basically, come up for sale. Yet, Mr. Speaker, this process has happened three times in the Gwich’in settlement region and every time the economics were just not there in regard to the price that was being requested. But yet, Mr. Speaker, in the land claim agreements it also talks about the right for employment and opportunities with those outfitter businesses, and yet very few aboriginal people and Gwich’in individuals have been hired by the Arctic Red Outfitters to work in this field and also take advantage of those opportunities.

So, Mr. Speaker, in regard to the land claim obligations, the access and benefit agreements that give them access to the Gwich’in lands in their area of operations, with these licences changing it does not transfer those access agreements to those licensed holders. In regard to the existing Wildlife Act and the land claim agreements, there’s conflict in responsibilities in which you have an outdated Wildlife Act, you have a modern treaty. So I’d like to ask the Minister, what is this government doing to ensure that those legislated, protected rights and the land claim agreements are upheld regardless if we have a new Wildlife Act or not, and what is this

government doing to ensure that those rights are being implemented? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to this particular issue referred to by the Member, due process was followed and the Gwich’in exercised their rights and declined to exercise their right of first refusal. But it has pointed out some other issues and, as the Member indicated, we have an outdated piece of legislation -- the Wildlife Act -- that needs to be remedied, which we are doing, and we intend to have a new Wildlife Act before this House, hopefully passed in the life of this Assembly.

We also recognize the circumstance between the Gwich’in and the Sahtu. There’s an overlap issue in that you can only have right of first refusal, by definition, once, and it’s pointed to an area that I’ve committed to the Member for the Sahtu that we are going to sort out over the coming months of fall and winter and hopefully have it resolved by spring. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, again, these land claim agreements are constitutionally protected, they clearly describe what rights the First Nations groups have. Again, as part of those negotiations there were access and benefit agreements negotiated with the operators at the time to have certain rights to access, cross-use and also that there were also obligations from the outfitters to the land claim groups that they would provide certain opportunities to the land claim organizations. So where does this government stand on those access and benefit agreements that were negotiated with the outfitters and if the outfitter changes hands they have an obligation to negotiate a new access and benefit agreement?

It’s our intention as a government to honour all our obligations. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, again, I think that the information that’s now coming to the surface in regard to the sale of the Arctic Red River licence to a new operator, which we find out that the majority of the directors of that business are Americans and live in Utah, and they are seen as the proponent of the purchasers of this licence because they have deep pockets. So I’d just like to ask the Minister, will you look at the whole area of eligibility and ensure that these licences are held either by Canadians or people in the Northwest Territories or First Nations to ensure that whenever you issue a licence that you scrutinize exactly who the directors are and ensure that those people are either Canadian citizens or look at exactly how these licences are being purchased and who is

purchasing these licences during the review period? Thank you.