Fort Smith, Northwest Territories - 22 August 2014
Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced measures to promote an economically viable, job-creating, commercial agricultural industry in Canada’s North. These include support to help establish a permanent campus for the Northern Farm Training Institute (NFTI) in the Northwest Territories, and the launch of the Northern Greenhouse Initiative, which is aimed at advancing the commercialization and enhancing the productivity of greenhouse projects across Canada’s North. The Prime Minister also profiled research into promising new modular farming technology, developed in conjunction with the Aurora Research Institute’s South Slave Research Centre in Fort Smith, that may extend the Northern growing season and substantially expand the Northern agriculture industry. The announcement was made during the Prime Minister’s ninth annual Northern Tour, taking place from August 21 to 26, 2014. He was joined by Bernard Valcourt, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, and Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of the Environment, Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency and Minister for the Arctic Council.
These new measures are intended to boost the growing Northern agricultural sector, by addressing gaps in available skills, technology and capital. The resulting increase in the amount of food grown locally will help to provide Northerners with better access to healthy fresh local produce at lower costs, and result in communities being less reliant on far-away producers.
The support being announced today for the NFTI will allow it to offer its programs year-round from a new permanent campus in Hay River, targeted towards students from every community in the Northwest Territories. It will enable the Institute to better deliver agricultural training tailored to meet the needs of Aboriginal and northern communities in the Northwest Territories. The graduates from the Institute will be able to take the skills they learn – including training in greenhouse operations – back to their home communities, such as Fort Smith, promoting the sharing of their know-how across the territory.
The Northern Greenhouse Initiative will provide support to advance the commercialization and enhance the productivity of greenhouse projects across Canada’s North. The Government of Canada, through its Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, will, in the coming days, call for partnership proposals to advance this initiative. More viable commercial greenhouses will improve access to healthy food options in the North and increased jobs and economic opportunities in the three territories.
