Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We see that as a valuable opportunity to produce a lot of locally grown food across Northwest Territories. One of the things we would have to do is see the land claims, all land claims settle, so land might be made available for that. Also, we do our land use planning and we need to identify that. We have the Agricultural Strategy, which would help us identify some of the issues that we have to deal with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The total savings over the two years that we've enacted the freeze it will be approximately $3.8 million. That would include the excluded employees, senior managers, and the deputy ministers.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the Member is referring to those that are in the public service with Union of Northern Workers, there’s a process that we're going through right through negotiations, and whatever agreement they come up with we will adhere to that.

I take a different view of the progress of the liabilities and financial assurance division. In less than two years, within the department, we have successfully established a new unit that was not contemplated at the time of devolution. This unit has so far managed a significant body of work from Queen's University and commenced work on the policy foundation that will guide them through future operations; supported the GNWT in decision-making on an innovation form of $253-million security for Ekati; completed an initial scoping study of Cantung issues that prepared the GNWT on managing issues...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Lands is less than two years old and the financial liabilities and financial assurance division was added after the creation of the Department of Lands. Turnover and staff departures and difficulty recruiting these highly-specialized positions are just some of the challenges that the organization has faced since start-up. Despite that, we have moved quickly and the director's position now has been filled on an acting basis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

No, I haven't had a conversation with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment yet. But, as I said before, once I get a better understanding of some of the skill sets that might be needed and some of the training courses that we may be able to offer, I will have a conversation with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to see if there's an opportunity for us to consider running some courses that might be beneficial to a number of our students. In my conversations with the folks from DLR in Germany, I had talked to them about the fact that if they can send folks over to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is work is progressing along very well and my understanding is that it’s supposed to be lights-on during 2016. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It would be applicationbased, and then each application will be looked at. Based on its merit, it will determine whether the application is approved or not, and the application process will go through the Department of Lands.

What I said was that we would like to see all the land claims settled. That way, there might be more land available that is within their claims area. If it's not in their claims area, there are still opportunities to access lands that they could potentially use for agriculture. We have a lot of communities that have community gardens. I believe all 33 communities have community gardens. We have to continue to look at the options and try and promote and endorse the locally grown foods, and that would help the cost of living across the Northwest Territories.

We have taken that into consideration and we have to understand that we're facing some challenges fiscally, and with some of the asks from this Legislative Assembly going forward we're going to be having to manage our finances a lot closer. But I take the Member's point and we will have an opportunity to have a discussion concerning the savings that we need to realize during the business planning process and when we table the Main Estimates.