Robert C. McLeod

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...

Gasoline will not be exempted at the pump, but I think they would have to file for that. As far as the rebates go, recognizing the cost of the carbon pricing on people in the Northwest Territories, that's one of the things we heard the most about as we were touring the Northwest Territories with that particular issue. There will be rebates provided to residents of the Northwest Territories using the made-in-the-North approach to carbon pricing. Had we used a federal backstop, and I think I provided a table at one time; I am in the process of putting that information together. I want to table...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to recognize my wife of 39 years, Judy McLeod, who provided me a lot of good advice, and she always reminds me to be nice in the Assembly. Sometimes, I listen. Sometimes, I don't. Always glad to have you in the gallery. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. WHEREAS, the Members of the 18th Legislative Assembly agreed upon a priority to support initiative designed to increase the number of women running for elected office in the Northwest Territories;

AND WHEREAS on March 8, 2018, a motion was adopted by the Legislative Assembly establishing a goal of increasing the representation of women in the Legislative Assembly to 20 percent by 2023 and to 30 percent by 2027;

AND WHEREAS on May 31, 2018, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly tabled a Discussion Paper on "Temporary Special Measures" to Increase the Representation of...

As far as the actual workshops, I am not quite sure of that detail. I will commit to getting that detail to see when and where we are having any workshops that are going out. I think the department is also coming forward to this Assembly, I believe, soon with the new initiative that they would like to try. I will not speak of it now, but it will be brought up before this Assembly as we deliberate the O and M budget during February-March. I think the folks out there will be pleased with the new initiatives that are coming out through ENR.

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...