Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We need legislation to manage the commercial use of non-timber forest products in the NWT. Within a matter of days, morels and other species of wild mushrooms will have reached their prime picking season in the NWT. A large number of commercial harvesters from BC and Alberta are coming to the Deh Cho to pick mushrooms in the areas that burned during last summer’s forest fires, where these mushrooms grow best.

Wild mushrooms are considered gourmet food because they cannot be cultivated and must be applicably identified and hand-picked from the places where they are found. As a result, mushroom harvest is very competitive and products fetch high prices on national and international markets.

If these mushrooms are harvested in the NWT, some of the profits should stay in the NWT. All a harvester needs right now is an NWT business licence in order to pick and sell wild mushrooms from the NWT. Local harvesters are concerned that they will be pushed out of picking locations, especially on traditional Dehcho lands.

My constituents urge the GNWT to increase the price of business licences for out-of-territory harvesters as a way to regulate wild mushroom harvests before we get a new Forest Management Act. As Members of the Legislative Assembly, we all have a role in the creation and implementation of the acts of the NWT. When we consider the magnitude of legislation devolved in the Devolution Agreement compared to a tiny morel mushroom, the regulation of non-timber forest products should be well within our reach. A new Forest Management Act is essential as we take control of lands and resource management, expand biomass initiatives and commercial harvest of wild mushrooms, berries, syrup and other forest products.

Both the Nisga’a tribe of BC and the province of Saskatchewan regulate non-timber forest products. We need to settle the Dehcho land claim so that the Dehcho people can develop innovative tools like the Nisga’a have to manage resources on their lands. My constituents and I thank ENR and ITI for their commitment to support territorial mushroom harvesters. We ask that you further strengthen the measures we have available.

I urge government to move forward on the development of new legislation, ensure compliance with the legislation we do have, raise the cost of business licences for out-of-territory harvesters and continue to support the territorial entrepreneurs who are trying to make the best of a local resource this season. Mahsi.