Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I have another great idea. I have been talking about renewable resources, Mr. Speaker, and I want to talk about agriculture today.

Mr. Speaker, why can’t we identify tracts of land for agriculture in the Northwest Territories? We have regressed when it come to the area of production of our own food. Mr. Speaker, not that many years ago, boats used to travel down the Mackenzie River and carry fresh fruit to the communities and that product was grown here in the Northwest Territories at many different locations, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, some of the...

Thank you. I normally wouldn’t be encouraging the government to spend more money on international travel, but since there does seem to be a $25,000 surplus, I was wondering, well, actually, Mr. Menicoche is wondering if he can come too.

---Laughter

That’s good and I appreciate that and I thank the Minister for that. Initially when we were trying to get a third member from our committee to attend, we were told that we should pay our own way and I asked how much it would be and he said $86,000 divided by six. So it looks like they’ve got their budget under control here and apparently a slight change in schedule and more people can go and they’re paying less money for airfare. Travelling economy, that is truly impressive and I’d like to thank the Minister for that. Thank you.

So, Mr. Chairman, at $50,000 for travel, is most of that airfare or is that for ground travel and everything when they get there? Because seven people at $50,000 for travel, that works out to over $7,000 per person and I don’t think it costs that much to fly to Copenhagen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I had some questions on the $86,000 to provide funding for the costs associated with the Government of the Northwest Territories participation in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference. I would like to ask the Minister for more detail of what comprises the $86,000. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’d like to start off with Tabled Document 19-16(4), Supplementary Appropriation No. 3 (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2009-2010, and then move to Tabled Document 18-16(4) following that and then, time permitting, I guess we could revisit what the wish of the committee is, but we’d like to start with those two, please. Thank you.

Not wanting to be pessimistic about the conclusion of all those kinds of activities that the Minister is referring to, I’ve lived in the Northwest Territories 35 years and the progress has been very, very slow. I don’t want to ascribe blame to the federal or territorial governments or to the claimant groups. I mean, the fact of the matter is that these lands are not available now and yet they could be used and the claimant groups could derive revenue, the person creating the agricultural activity on the land could generate revenue and we could produce crops and food closer to the people who...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions, Mr. Speaker, are for the Minister of ITI and follow in line with Mr. Hawkins’ and Mr. Bromley’s statements today. Mr. Speaker, the topic of agriculture and advancing agriculture in the Northwest Territories is something that I don’t feel has been given the attention it deserves, considering its potential. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of ITI if any work has been done by his department in identifying the economic potential of enhancing and increasing agriculture in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Mr. Chairman, I’ve been just thinking about this $86,000 budgeted for the trip to Copenhagen. Now I understand at some point in time the supplementary appropriation has to go to print, but wow, $25,000 out of $86,000 is going to be put back. That’s a big percentage off on the estimating of this trip. I know maybe at first they were going to fly business class and now they’re not and they’re taking an extra Member, but $25,000 out of $86,000 off on this and I guess what I’m wondering about is the Minister says, well, they’ll put the money back. How do they put the money back? Is he sure it just...