Are morel pickers more trouble than they're worth for N.W.T.?
'It's like a mushroom rush out there,' says MLA Jane Groenewegen
This year's morel mushroom harvest could be worth as much as $10 million to the Northwest Territories economy says Industry Minister David Ramsay.
But how much of that money will fall into Northerners pockets? And what's being done to keep tabs on pickers from outside the territory?
- Morel pickers, buyers arrive in N.W.T. for mushroom season
- Kakisa morel pickers relocated into bush by GNWT
- Northern pickers ready for mushroom boom
Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen wonders if visiting pickers are more trouble than they're worth, considering they don't pay income tax, they don't need permits and their bush skills are unknown.
"I'm concerned that, yeah, this might generate a lot of money, but how much is it going to cost us when one campfire, or one cigarette butt, goes into our extremely dry forest and burns the Northwest Territories down?" she said.
"It's like a mushroom rush out there," she said. "There is no registry. There is no place to sign in. We don't know their names. We don't know where they're from. We don't know who their next of kin are. There's all kinds of danger in the bush."
Papers please
Groenewegen wants mushroom pickers to be registered so the territory knows how many there are and where they are.
Hay River North MLA Robert Bouchard said surveys at the border would give the territory an idea of how much money is staying here or leaving the territory.
Ramsay said he's open to that idea. "Most of the pickers that would come to the Northwest Territories from the south would of course come by vehicle," he said. "So we probably could get a good indication on numbers with a survey at those two locations."
Ramsay said regulations for the industry are in the works, but they won't be ready for this year's harvest.