The Member correctly points out the inherent challenges in agriculture and farming in the Northwest Territories is lack of access to land. The many examples that were used, I know in Fort Providence there was a large attempt at introducing farming and ranching in the 1980s and that failed mainly because of the lack of access to land, amongst other challenges. But certainly our government works through land claims negotiations. We don’t have access to lands, we don’t own lands as such other than the federal government owns the majority of the lands, the other large landholders are aboriginal governments. We, through devolution, are hoping to work toward getting management and control of lands and we are also working on a land use framework that would identify areas that would be utilized for agriculture, forestry, other resource development at the time when we do achieve devolution.
Bob McLeod on Question 149-16(4): Opportunities For Northern Agriculture
In the Legislative Assembly on November 3rd, 2009. See this statement in context.
Question 149-16(4): Opportunities For Northern Agriculture
Oral Questions
November 2nd, 2009
See context to find out what was said next.