Thank you, Madam Chair. The Growing Forward Program that is in place to the end of March 31st called Growing Forward 1
basically invested $3.2 million in our agricultural programs. I don’t have the exact value. I’d have to look at the individual main estimate and public accounts how the actual breakdown occurred, but the majority of that allocation was distributed in contributions to parties across the Northwest Territories in various areas.
I’ll just reference the typical annual budget allocation. Small Scale Food, around $245,000; northern agri-food programs, $105,000; inter-settlement trade initiatives, around $12,000; traditional harvesting sourced a great deal of the program at $234,000; contributions were made to still commercial wildlife support of $80,000; in one particular area we made a contribution of about $50,000 to bison agricultural development. That would be a typical allocation by the agricultural sector, but overall the small scale foods and traditional side was where the primary support existed.
The products on traditional would be, for example, the Muskox Harvesting Program for a number of years was quite well supported and continues to be reviewed. Overall, it’s primarily a contribution program and with the hopeful conclusion of negotiations early in the fiscal year with the federal government Department of Agriculture, we’ll see an increase to $1.2 million annually in that program and we’re quite excited as, through the Minister, for a five-year agreement to see such success in this and the support by the federal government in this area.