Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are at an important time in our history, and I believe COVID-19 brought food security to its limits on a global scale. California, where the majority of our food comes from, is experiencing increased droughts and pressures. Desertification is increasing around equatorial regions in the world, and the growing season is pushing further and further north. Many countries and areas around the world have capitalized on this.
In Russia, for example, half of their food comes from backyard gardens, and every citizen is entitled to two to five acres for free farmland in which they can build a house on it. Just next door in the Yukon, there has been a longstanding program that gives out farmland for those who will farm it. The 2016 census reported 142 farms operating in the Yukon. The NWT, on the other hand, has 16.
Mr. Speaker, whether it be the Inuvik greenhouse, McNeely's Nursery, Arctic Farmer, Riverside Growers, Nifty, Polar Eggs, Green Enterprises, or Deh Cho Gardens, there are models that are working in the North, but we have a long way to go. One of the biggest barriers and obstacles in this area is access to land, Mr. Speaker.
We still do not have an agricultural lease. We still do not have commercial leases that allow you to live on it, despite almost everyone who has farmed for all of history, lived on those farms.
Mr. Speaker, I believe people often shun the idea that we can expand the agricultural industry in the North. They go, "It's too cold," and kind of shrug it off as not an economic driver. I would rather take one business that can employ five people and replicate it to every single community than I would take a business that employs 150 people. I believe we have models, and we need to expand this into the North.
Mr. Speaker, whether it be the reindeer herd in Inuvik or what we see in Alberta, northern bison farming, there are plenty of options to expand into this to ensure we have food security. It creates a low barrier entry for work. The South Slave is filled with rich, arable land. I will have questions for the Minister of Lands of what we are doing to actually make sure we end up with more farming and more agricultural. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.