Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to continue on with my questioning in regard to the cost of gasoline, fuel in our small communities. I want to ask the Minister of ITI. I understand through the ITI department they have the Community Harvesters Assistance Program, or known as CHAP. This is a well-subscribed program that’s very popular in our small communities, especially for hunters, trappers and gatherers of country food. These are the people that help and continue with tradition.
So with this program, is there enough in the program to help reduce the cost of the fuel that the trappers need to go on the land to support their families?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the Community Harvesters Assistance Program is a very valuable assistance program. Currently, we’re at just over $1 million in support. It provides funds that are distributed by the local committees to community harvesters in support of harvesting activities in the communities. Additional funding was secured from Canada-NWT Growing Forward 2. The agreement helped offset a portion of the cost to communities on community hunts. LWCs can apply for a maximum of up to 60 percent of the cost of a community hunt or harvest to a maximum of $4,000. Additional funding is also available for the purchase of small tools and related equipment required to store, process and preserve foods from community hunts or harvest. Also, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources delivers CHAP to clients who are not members of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation in Yellowknife. Thank you.
The Minister of Public Works gave me a very interesting fact sheet. The last paragraph in the fact sheet talks about the CHAP program. Through the CHAP program with the registered hunters and trappers in the communities, can they take this fund, walk down the street with their jerry can, go to the gas station, would they be able to, through this program, pay for the fuel that the petroleum products sells through their community government clients? They pay a lower price than the regular clients. Can that happen?
Thank you. Where the funds are administered and handled by local organizations at the community level, the money would be given to communities and it would be up to the community, in my estimation, on what they spend that money on, and if it’s fuel to get out for a community hunt or a community harvest, that’s what that fund could be used for and that’s what communities could be putting that money toward. Thank you.
So my understanding is each type of customer that purchases fuel through the petroleum products division has its own pricelist. There are 10 types of customers, including the general public who pays whatever price they have now, the GNWT, boards and agencies, community governments, federal governments and others.
Can the community harvesters, registered trappers and hunters, be deemed as one of these 10 types of customers that could go to the gas station and under the community government clients pay a lower price than the regular customers? That’s what I’m asking.
Yes, I understand the Member’s concern and the Member’s question. That is something that we’ll look into and I can supply the Member with a response. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to the response from the Minister. Certainly this would help the trappers all down the Mackenzie Valley up to the Beaufort Sea. If the trappers can get some relief, get some support, because the fuel is something that is detrimental to their way of life, unless there’s a program to get the dog teams back in place so they can be used in the communities again. So can the Minister do this within the next three months?
Thank you. I know last week I made a statement in this House about how our government supports trappers in the Northwest Territories. We’ve just handed out a number of awards again this year. The fact that we’ve put 1,700 children in the Northwest Territories through the Take a Kid Hunting and Take a Kid Harvesting trapping programs that we have, it’s very important to the Government of the Northwest Territories to continue to support trappers.
Again, I understand the Member’s concern about gas prices and the fact that trappers are spending a lot of their help and their funds on getting gas for their snow machines or their ATVS or their boats. If there’s a way that the Government of the Northwest Territories can continue to support trappers in their pursuit, that’s something that we’re very much interested in doing.
I just wanted to, if I could, just thank the Member and all the trappers across the Northwest Territories for the work that they do. We also have a new reality show, NWT Fur Harvesters, that is a very worthwhile show, and if Members get a chance to watch that show, I certainly would encourage them to view that show and see exactly what it’s like living on a trapline and collecting fur. Thank you.
