Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the fall of 2012, Choice North Farms of Hay River began exploring the option of developing a manure compost facility. The facility would see the composting of approximately 5,700 tonnes of manure annually. In addition to the manure composted, there would be a significant amount of paper and cardboard required to mix in the manure that’s reducing the amount being sent to our landfills each year.

After selecting the site with the assistance of AANDC, the first federal application was sent directly to Lands administration office in Yellowknife in early 2013, but the application was rejected for lack of an agricultural policy in the Northwest Territories. I want to stress that.

A second federal land application was made to the office of Municipal and Community Affairs in Fort Smith. That application was rejected for lack of an agriculture policy in the Northwest Territories. Further discussion around the issue identified that MACA should have sent their own application to the federal department, not the application from Choice North Farms, and then have worked to establish a lease agreement between Choice North and the territorial government. There seemed to be confusion as to how the process worked and this was the first application of this kind. There was further concern about the lacking agriculture policy to allow MACA to lease land for this purpose.

Mr. Speaker, there is a few more paragraphs here about the long, convoluted path that my constituents had in trying to secure land, but in 2014, October 2014, just recently, my constituent attended the NWT Lands administration office in Yellowknife to discuss property that he had applied for. Because the land was unavailable, they were willing to look at another parcel but they had been informally told that if they continued to pursue a new site for this compost project, the application will be turned down because there is no mechanism to develop agricultural lands outside of municipalities.

Until the NWT Lands or the Commissioner or Lands department establish a mechanism, Choice North Farms can expect the same results.

The situation has been communicated up through the department by the lands officers that have they have been working with, so there is an awareness of the issue.

Currently, they are working with Ecology North and GNWT ITI waste management on a pilot project. Technical requirements for this project have been completed. The manure is ready for compost, and they are prepared to move forward with this project, pending access to land.

The compost could and would be used for agricultural small scale farming, landscaping, mine reclamation and a host of other land and food-based projects. This compost could be shipped to other communities that are unable to grow food due to soil restraints, and Choice North Farms sees this as a vital…