David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for raising the concern over the trappers. It is something that the department is reacting to and something we’ve heard. We’ve addressed that and have $1.1 million that we earmarked through the Community Harvesters Assistance Program. Also $610,000 on an annual basis to the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur program.

I must say, the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur program is a unique program in this country. No other jurisdiction in this country offers a program like that that encourages and supports trappers getting out on the land. Last year we had sales of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled A Vision for Energy in the Northwest Territories – Developing the 2013 Northwest Territories Energy Plan, October 2012.

As I mentioned, if you do it for one, you’ve got to do it for everybody. There are a number of kilometres of highway or road in the Northwest Territories where folks understand that the Department of Transportation does not have responsibility for maintaining those roadways. It’s an issue that as we move devolution forward, we will have to pay attention to, and certainly, like I said earlier, the landscape is going change and we’re aware of that.

As we move forward with devolution, that will ultimately be a discussion that we will have to have, but certainly as it stands today, those roads that the Member talks about in his riding aren’t roads the Department of Transportation maintains. Is there a way that we can try to bridge that gap between now and when devolution does come in? There’s a possibility we could sit down with the Member and residents to discuss how that will happen, but we’re going to have to find some dollars between now and then to make that happen.

We have very knowledgeable staff not only here in headquarters but in the regions. If trappers have some need for getting questions answered on how to conduct their business affairs, we’d have information available for trappers in that regard, and it’s something that we’d look to support trappers. We have courses on trapping and I can certainly bring this up with the department and perhaps the next time we put on a session we could look at offering some course work on how to operate it as a business. That may be something that’s useful, and I thank the Member for his suggestion.

The department fully appreciates the role that the traditional economy plays, and that of trapping. We do have a program like the Take a Kid Trapping program. I mentioned it in the House earlier during this session that we’ve had 12,000 young people across the Northwest Territories go through the Take a Kid Trapping program. It’s been very successful. That’s how we’re going to get young people interested in trapping here in the Northwest Territories.

I mentioned the $1.5 million in fur sales. That’s money that goes directly back into the small communities and the local economies in those small...

Mr. Speaker, later today at the appropriate time, I will table a public discussion paper, entitled A Vision for Energy in the Northwest Territories: Developing the 2013 Northwest Territories Energy Plan. This paper is the first component of a multi-step process that will lead to the development of the 2013 Energy Plan. Residents, business, municipal governments, Aboriginal organizations and community groups are all invited to read this document and submit their comments to the government. The paper lays out five key questions on which the Government of the Northwest Territories is asking the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The two leases near Fort Good Hope totalled $92 million. I thank the Member for bringing that up.

On the discussion regarding connecting the Mackenzie Valley winter road between Fort Good Hope and Tsiigehtchic, it’s something that was brought up at meetings. I was on a constituency tour with Member Blake in the spring and it’s something that came up at a number of his communities. It is also something that I’ve instructed the department to include in the business plan that was before the House just a couple months back.

It does require a great deal of permitting. It’s...

The issue the Member talks about in his riding is not an issue that is only taking place in and around Yellowknife; it’s also an issue in other locations throughout the Northwest Territories. It’s an item that we have to pay attention to as we move towards devolution, and we do, certainly, discuss that item with MACA. We need to come up with a way to move this whole thing forward. We certainly intend to do that by working with MACA. Of course, the landscape is going to change post-devolution and we understand that, and we need to ensure that we are coordinating our approaches to deal with that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We only maintain roads that are included in the NWT highway regulations. Those are the only roads that the Department of Transportation maintains.