Statements in Debates
As far as I know, we are the only jurisdiction in the country that offers a grubstake program as far as traditional fur harvesting goes, and we are quite proud of that fact. We recognize the fact that it is an important economy in the Northwest Territories. The Member is absolutely correct. We are starting to see more and more young people get back into the traditional lifestyle. We are getting a lot of support from the government.
As well, I know of a couple of Aboriginal governments, I think the GTC has a great program where they support the young people who are trying to get back into...
Mr. Speaker, my understanding, as far as I know we have had the one concern, and, if there are others, I will follow up and let them know that this should not happen again once we get all of the kinks ironed out of the system. Again, the Member agrees with me, this is a fantastic program. We actually had a veteran trapper up in the delta when we were up there with the meeting, the economic symposium. We had them actually come up to the Minister of ITI and myself, complementing the government on the success of that program with the Grubstake Program and everything else and how successful it's...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to stand here and promote one of the best programs that the government offers across the Northwest Territories. As the Member from the Mackenzie Delta said, it is November 1st today, trapping season, and a lot of people are able to access many of the programs through the Grubstake Program and prepare themselves from an upcoming trapping season. They get further benefits when they bring their fur in. They do get an advance on fur that they bring. They send the fur out to the markets, and then depending on how quickly the sale is is how...
One of the challenges that we face in the Northwest Territories, and we made it known to Ottawa, was a lot of the product that we have coming to the territories has to be shipped into the Northwest Territories. We don't produce a lot of our own product, and they understood that. My understanding is that those products that are coming in, they would have to pay carbon tax on that. That is one of the reasons, when we came up with our made-in-the-NWT approach, we thought it would be easier for our residents if we rebated the heating fuel and at the pumps, as well as the aviation fuel.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was a lot of work done with Ottawa on the carbon pricing and the effect that it was going to have on the Northwest Territories. They have agreed with us that aviation fuel should be exempt, and I believe heating fuel as well will be exempt at the pump. Those are the two. I was just checking on the gasoline to see if there was an exemption there. Those are the two that we have for now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to section 74(3) and 35(1) of the Financial Administration Act, I wish to table the following two heavy documents entitled "Inter-Activity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 (April 1 to June 30, 2018)" and "Public Accounts 2017-2018, Sections I, II, III and IV." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The program that the Member spoke about, I think I was in collaboration with the Aboriginal governments up there. I think IRC was heavily involved in that. My understanding was fairly successful program. As far as the on-the-land collaborative, we received a number of applications, I think it was about 104 applications, but 48 projects were approved. Approximately $1 million was dispersed to support on-the-land programming.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, from November 2017 to June 2018, which is basically the trapping season, there were 661 trappers in the Northwest Territories. They marketed about $622,000 of Northern fur for that particular year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the fur harvest management system might be the one the Member is referring to. We are getting the kinks out of that. Again I would have to investigate a little further, but I do know that sometimes the delay in getting the money back to the trappers is from the actual fur sale itself. I think in this particular case the way that it was going through the system might have been part of the reason for the delay, and I can assure the Member and all trappers out there, and I know a lot of them personally, that this will not be happening again.
As Members are aware, this Legislative Assembly of the Government of the Northwest Territories does provide a lot of subsidies across the NWT. A couple of things that the Member mentioned on hunting and trapping through the different programs that are offered through ENR, in the Genuine Fur Valley, the Grub Stake Program, they do get some funding through that. As far as coming up with another subsidy, that's not on the table at the moment. As I said again, there are a number of subsidies that are provided through the government, and we believe that one of the subsidies might be able to capture...