Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we talk about wilderness camps all the time for young offenders and for adult offenders and there’s always a request for funding. I would like to see this government maybe be proactive. The reason this came to light was a piece of correspondence that I received on an adventure camp initiative for young women. I think it’s an excellent idea and I think it’s something that we can expand on to go throughout the Northwest Territories. I would like to ask Minister McLeod, I believe is the Minister of Youth, I would like to ask Minister McLeod if there is anything within the youth mandate that would allow him to make contributions to the operation of youth camps. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not familiar yet with the legislation she is referring to, but I’m sure that we could address that when we make a presentation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have discussions with my colleague and I’m sure I can get him to offer to come to Hay River and make a presentation to the Territorial Farmers’ Association as to exactly what process would have to be followed to do exactly what the Minister is requesting. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have been working in the past with the Territorial Farmers’ Association on a number of initiatives. We have been successful in working with them to negotiate a framework agreement with the federal government which has resulted in funding for agri-food policy. In order to have an agricultural policy that would be effective, there would be a requirement to identify some access to land, and I know the Member has heard that on many occasions. We have identified ways that it could be done whereby we could work with MACA to identify land and move towards lower taxation areas. These are some of the things, the challenges that we would have to deal with, but certainly

we can begin to start working on a policy for the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think, as one of your constituents has said previously, we don’t see agriculture as being a dirty four letter word. I’ve always been a supporter of agriculture. In the small communities there has always been agriculture and it’s one way to reduce import replacement. Everybody needs food and if you can grow your own food, it’s something that will help reduce the cost of living. Over the years, this government has undertaken a number of initiatives to support agriculture and as we go through our priority setting exercise, I would hope that we would be able to advance agriculture. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This issue came up in the previous government. A discussion paper was enacted. I believe there were 69 responses to

the discussion paper. This is something that we will consider again as this government goes through establishing its priorities for the next four years. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is that the whistleblower initiative is geared to a much broader application whereby if individuals or employees see situations occurring which they feel is improper or that they can report on it. I think in this instance we are talking about specific situations on the job. In those cases, I would like to reassure the Member that we take them very seriously. The individuals in question, the information they provide, will be respected and their privacy will be accommodated. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member right now is talking about a hypothetical situation. Employees that do find themselves in such a situation are encouraged to contact their senior management or to contact the department. We have invested a lot of time and effort to train investigators. We have a number of positions within the Department of Human Resources that have been trained to specifically deal with workplace conflict situations and also to conduct investigations into these types of situations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for the question. The government has a workplace conflict resolution policy. That outlines how we would deal with those toxic environment situations that he described. Generally we depend on our management and the employees in question to report on those types of situations. We take them very seriously because the safety of our employees is our first priority. If we do become aware of any such situation, we take immediate action in a variety of different ways. If we feel that there is an immediate danger, we will take steps to remove the employees in question or send them home or take some action so that there is no possibility of something more serious occurring. Thank you.