David Ramsay

We haven’t had discussions. I know ITI has not had discussions as of yet with ECE on looking at putting a component in the schools, but that is a very good idea and certainly something that I will follow up on.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in response to Mrs. Groenewegen’s questions earlier, we have met with the TFA. We are aware of the training that they are proposing. We plan to meet with them again next week in Yellowknife. We are hoping to conclude negotiations on the Growing Forward Fund by the end of this fiscal year, another four weeks or so, at which time, I do believe, we’ll be able to provide some assistance and help in order to see this farmer training taking place in Hay River. We are very hopeful that it will happen.

My role as Minister of ITI when we attend a session like the Sahtu Readiness Session, is to take the information back to the Cabinet table and make my colleagues aware of what is happening in the Sahtu. After what happened last winter, Cabinet got together, there was a response to that and you can see that response in this year’s budget.

As things continue to move forward in the Sahtu, government will need to respond, whether it’s through Education, Health and Social Services or ITI. Government will have to react and respond to what is happening there. We certainly look forward to things...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The trip that we envision in April to southeast Saskatchewan and to North Dakota would be to meet with Aboriginal leaders. I would certainly hope to have some Aboriginal leaders from the Sahtu accompany me on that trip so that we can meet with them there to see how Aboriginal people in the Bakken have benefited from development on their land. That is something that we certainly look forward to and I certainly hope the Member can make some time in April to come with us.

Mr. Speaker, as I am aware, our highway patrol officers are equipped with the best in communication equipment, and are able to communicate with other enforcement agencies in the territory and emergency response personnel in the territory.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do know that the Government of the Northwest Territories has highway emergency learning protocols in place, and these describe responsibilities, by region, as to who will respond to emergencies on our highways, and these protocols are developed in partnership with our Department of Transportation, MACA, the Department of Justice and also Health and Social Services. As to the exact level of training of, say, a grader operator, they would certainly, I think, have different training than our highway patrol officers would have. But I could certainly get back to the Member...

As I mentioned, we have staff. They are multi-tasking on a number of economic initiatives here in the Northwest Territories. Certainly as things progress, and if we do have dedicated staff that are working in the area of agriculture on a day-to-day basis, it would certainly make sense for them to be located in Hay River.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to have to be very nice on my answers to the Member here today, considering she’s going to be grading us tomorrow. We have met with Ms. Milne when she was here in Yellowknife and my understanding is she is coming back to Yellowknife, I believe, on March 5th. Our department, and hopefully myself, will be able to meet with her again. We are anxious to see her progress with her initiative and help out in any way that we can.

As I have mentioned a number of times in the House, we are moving forward with negotiating the Growing Forward 2 Agreement with the federal...

The only demand involving lands outside of municipalities is coming from Hay River. We have met with the Town of Hay River and the Territorial Farmers Association. They are looking at 300 acres of land within the municipality for agriculture, and our officials have spoken to both the town and the TFA and offered support in trying to find a way forward for utilization of that land for agricultural pursuits. We will continue to do that. There is also interest in Fort Smith and Enterprise, as well as Yellowknife for land for agricultural use. We’re continuing that dialogue as well.

I think the really positive thing about having the training there is that we can get people from the communities to attend the training in Hay River, and take the skills and knowledge that they learn there back to their communities so that they can train and teach other people back in their communities. So, yes, there has been some indication that we will get some people from the communities that want to get the training and take that information knowledge back home.