Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of ITI. I talked about the special relationship with our people on the land and helping each other get out to the land. I made statements in 2012, on November 2nd, about trappers and life on the land. I want to ask the Minister, given that knows what we contribute, has there been any type of discussion in terms of helping families get on the land with all the programs that we have offered through the government.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently there was a traditional economy workshop held in Deline with the SRRB and, as well, CanNor helped us fund that. I would be happy to provide the Member with a copy of our presentation from that.
But getting to the programs that we do have and the assistance that we do have, of course, we have the Take a Kid Trapping and Take a Kid Harvesting, which are done through the schools in the Northwest Territories. We also have the Community Harvester Assistance Program, which is almost $1.1 million on an annual basis. We also have a number of other programs that we provide assistance to harvesters. The Community Harvester Assistance Program is another one. Through these programs at the local, level people and families could approach the local authorities there to get some of that funding to get out on the land.
We certainly have supported the trappers, people who make their life on the land. It’s the point of view that we look at trapping or harvesting and being a fisherman, to being a trapper, to be a hunter. Some look at it as a business. We sometimes look at it as a way of life.
I want to ask the Minister of ITI, could he look across the different departments and say can we come up with a unique program, because we’re known for our uniqueness in the Northwest Territories through education, health, whatever, and say we can do this program, treatment, healthy living or education or whatever, but come up with a program that says this is a family program that promotes family togetherness out on the land. Can he do that?
Traditional activities out on the land are considered to be productive choices under the Income Assistance program. Certainly that’s something that I can continue to have discussions with my Cabinet colleagues on how we can go about getting some funding to allow people to get out and pursue the traditional economy out on the land.
I look forward to seeing if anything can come forward from working with his colleagues, like productive choices through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, so that people in the small communities can go to either the Department of RWED or to Education, Culture and Employment and say we want to take our family on the land, this is what it’s going to cost us to bring our families out, so that we have support from the government.
Would the Minister come forward within the life of this government, so maybe by next year we can have a program that would be offered to all people in the Northwest Territories?
Yes, we could take a look at that, and I can let the Member know that we will take that into consideration and get him some type of response.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If we come with this unique program that Mr. Ramsay is committing to look at and bring forward, it’s life on the land. The economy, that’s the business side, but I think it would be supporting the life on the land that supports our vision and goals of the 17th Assembly. I’ll ask the Minister, coming forward and getting some information back from our communities and seeing that we can pilot some type of unique program for the coming fall time. I’m not too sure if that’s too short of a time, but I will look forward to some type of a movement on this.
Yes, we will try to do that in as short order as we can. In the meantime though, we do have opportunities for community members to take part in community hunts and community harvests under the Community Harvester Assistance Program, so if families wanted to get together and coordinate a trip out on the land to pursue traditional activities, there is currently programs and money available for them to do that.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
