Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I'd like to recognize Ms. Angela James, who I consider a huge friend a role model of her own. Ms. James has dedicated her whole life to actually working with Indigenous children and communities to bring forward their strengths and their pride in their culture, and she is one woman who I have known most of my life and I totally respect and bow my head to. Thank you, Ms. James.
Masi. Member for Range Lake.
The other person I want to recognize in the House today is Mr. Brad Firth, commonly known as "Caribou Legs." Mr. Firth ran 7,400 kilometres across Canada to raise awareness for family violence and the problem of the missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. This is a huge feat, and to you I offer as well my sincere appreciation. Thank you.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in gallery. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won't be as long. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to welcome all the Official Languages and Aboriginal Languages Revitalization board members, and also, in particular, some constituents of mine and relatives from Ulukhaktok, Ms. Emily Kudlak and Ms. Barb Mamogana, and also Ms. Beverly Amos from Inuvik. I just want to say thank you for all the hard work you do in keeping our language strong.
Mr. Speaker, earlier on in this sitting I said, with all the language and culture of Indigenous groups so prevalent today through colonization, Mr. Speaker, there is a core that is unshakable. The women and men who work hard every day are the greatest contributors to our society, and I appreciate the work that they do today and looking forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Monsieur le President. Today I have a page who is serving in the House, Simone Bruce-Cato from St. Patrick School, and she's a constituent of mine. I want to thank all the pages for the hard work in this session; it hasn't been easy, but much appreciated. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize Violet Jumbo, a constituent of mine, to the Legislative Assembly. As well, Brad Firth, who I've had the pleasure of working with through my previous job and way back when during our hockey seasons up in Inuvik, so I welcome Brad to the Legislative Assembly. As well Ms. Linda Carter, who is a long-time family friend of my sister and the family, and I welcome her to the Legislative Assembly as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, wanted to recognize members of the Regional Aboriginal Languages Board, the chairs and plus the language coordinators from the region: Jonas Landry from Fort Providence, and also Violet Jumbo from Fort Simpson. Also, people who I know: Theresa Etchinelle from Tulita, as well as recognizing the Rangers and Mr. Brad Firth for his accomplishment. I understand he just came across Great Slave Lake and he ran that course. I would like to recognize him. Mahsi.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I didn't know that some members of my riding were in. I see Bertha Catholique up there; she's an interpreter from Lutselk'e now, and Vance Anderson, who is my grandson's father. Thank you.
Masi. Mr. Beaulieu has got all connections throughout the Northwest Territories. Recognition of visitors in the gallery.
I, too, would like to welcome the language board, the revitalization board, to our proceedings. It's always great to have an audience as part of our proceedings. More specifically, I guess, Tammy Steinwand-Deschambeault for doing all the great work for our region, and Ms. Sheila Warren, who is originally from Behchoko and now she is living in Hay River. She's still known as a Behchoko resident. Another one I would just like to highlight is newly anointed Dr. Angela James. Welcome to our proceedings. Doing such great, fantastic work. Keep up the great work!
---Applause
Of course, I'm recognizing Brad Firth as well, aka "Caribou Legs." Keep up the great work, and also all the Rangers who are here with us and just for making a difference. Mahsi for being here with us. If we missed anybody in this part of the proceedings, welcome. It's always great to have an audience. Masi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Earlier today I spoke about the importance of the traditional economy. Mr. Speaker, my question is: how many people subscribe to the Genuine Mackenzie Fur Program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a program that we're quite proud of, and it seems to have been working for trappers across the NWT. I can tell the Member that close to 700 trappers a year for the last three years have participated in the Genuine Mackenzie Fur Program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It's good to see that quite a large number of trappers apply to this program. Mr. Speaker, my second question is: how does ENR work with ITI to measure the value of the traditional harvesting economy in the Northwest Territories?
We have a protocol agreement between ENR and ITI to deliver the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program, including the utilization of a fur harvesters database. The fur harvesters database records and tracks the monetary value, the quality, and the number of individual species that have been sold at auctions.
It's good to see that the departments are working together to collect this data which is important for funding programs. Actually, that leads to my third question, Mr. Speaker: how does ENR work with the hunters' and trappers' associations to collect accurate data from harvesters?
ENR they work very closely with the harvesters within our regional and area offices during the trapping season. The harvesters, they bring in their raw animal pelts that they've harvested in order to be shipped and sold at auctions. All this information is collected by ENR and entered into the fur harvesters' database.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, my final question is: how does ENR work with hundreds of trappers' associations to ensure its program such as the Hunters and Trappers' Disaster Compensation Program are responsive to the needs of harvesters and the evolution of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our regional and area renewable resource officers are available to work with our local hunters' and trappers' associations to share information, deliver updates, and provide on-the-ground support related to harvesting including information on all the programs that are offered, including the disaster compensation. We are currently reviewing our Traditional Economy Program and looking at ways to be more responsive to meet the needs of local harvesters.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, previously in the House I raised a question to the Minister responsible for Lands on the issue of land use planning; specifically, the mandate commitment to finalize land use plans. Today, I want to turn that line of questions towards the Yellowknife area, and specifically what is being done to finalize a land use plan for Yellowknife and the surrounding areas? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Lands.
Mr. Speaker, the government is, of course, working to establish effective and durable relationships with the Aboriginal government on land use planning. In those areas where there is no plan that has been established or agreed upon, we are developing under the recreational leasing management framework in the Yellowknife peripheral area plans that will assist us in the interim before land use plans are finalized with Aboriginal groups. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Recreational Land Use Planning Framework, does that only deal with recreational land, as its name would imply, or does it deal with all other types of land that would be subject to a land use plan?
As the name would imply, it is dealing with recreational lands. Again, much of the Northwest Territories, there are comprehensive land use plans established by those areas that there are not. These are seen as interim steps.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think our capital region is, of course -- there's a significant population, like half the territory, that lives here and that wants to avail themselves of recreational opportunities, but also we have the TerraX mining operation at the Yellowknife Gold Project that is seeking clarity around these issues. There are also our partners in Indigenous nations that are seeking clarity of these issues. Apart from the recreational land use framework, is anything being done by the department to clarify land use for Yellowknife and its surrounding areas?
Yes. As mentioned previously, we are attempting to regularize land use planning in the Northwest Territories. Hopefully with agreements with Aboriginal groups. It is a complex issue. In the meantime, as has been mentioned, there are interim arrangements that will take place through management planning for recreational lease and the Yellowknife peripheral area so that there can be some certainty in land leasing prior to comprehensive land claims being settled.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that it's a complex issue and the Minister is doing his best to explain it in a way that fits into the question period. Can you make a commitment, then, to let to us know when this recreational framework will be completed and start having an effect on recreational land leases for Yellowknife? Thank you.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. I can make that commitment. I will keep Members of this house fully appraised as to progress.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister responsible for the Status of Women. I would like to thank her for her very thorough Minister's statement earlier today. I've had to rejig my questions a bit. The 2016-2017 Annual Report on Implementation of the Mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories was tabled in House, I think, last week. In reporting on government accomplishments, there's no mention of section 5 items that deal with increasing the number of women running for office. I'm just wondering if the Minister can explain whether this was -- or, sorry, the words "woman" or "women" don't appear anywhere in this section of the mandate report. Can the Minister help explain what happened with the mandate report? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for the Status of Women
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The reason that the accomplishments that we've done with addressing with getting more women into politics wasn't in the mandate speech was because this Cabinet recognized that today is International Women's Day. We decided that it was important enough that we wanted to denote a whole Minister's speech to this issue. It was decided to not put it in there and actually provide a whole Minister's speech to address it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister. It was kind of an interesting explanation. I would encourage you to report on that good work, and you did, but it should be in the report, too, to tell the public that we're continuing to do that. I do recognize the efforts of the Minister and my colleague from Yellowknife Centre in conducting that work.
One of the three specific activities as stated in the mandate is as follows: we will support a communications campaign to increase the participation of women in politics. Can the Minister give specifics on when that campaign will be launched, and mindful that we're only two years away from the next election and anyone planning to run should be starting their work now?
The communication campaign, we're just in the middle of developing it now. The reason that we're putting a little bit of still working on it is because we recognize that, when we are doing the campaign schools, that we are only addressing actually to get women into the Legislative Assembly. We are now looking at, once we do a workshop in Inuvik, we will be revising our whole campaign school so that we can address more women so that they can actually run not only for the Legislative Assembly but for Aboriginal governments, for municipal governments, hamlets, etc. Once we've decided our format and how we're going to address that, then we will be rolling out a full communication plan to address all of the issues.
Thanks again to the Minister. That's very helpful to hear that. I appreciate her efforts. Part of the work of Elections NWT is to promote and increase participation in the electoral process including participation of women. How is our government collaborating with Elections NWT or even other organizations to increase the number of women running for elected office?
Actually, we do collaborate quite closely. We do have our electoral officer attend the campaign schools with us. We will have the Department of Justice actually attending with us also to give us some feedback on where we need to move more and in what direction. We are working quite closely with the Status of Women on this issue. We are trying to be as inclusive as possible with the whole direction of getting more women in leadership in politics.
Masi. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. It's all good news today from the Minister. I appreciate her work on this. I'm just wondering if -- and I'm sorry, I didn't give her a heads up on this one -- she's been very thorough in answering everything else. What sort of specific funding, though, have we identified in the 2017-18 budget for these efforts as part of our mandate? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For the first campaign school, we gave $15,000 to the Status of Women, which was what they asked for, to do their campaign school in Hay River. We have just given $25,000 to the Status of Women to do the campaign school in Inuvik. We haven't gotten a financial figure out of the communications campaign yet. Once we finish that, then we will know what we are looking at, and we are planning, as stated in my Minister's statement, that we will be doing more campaign schools throughout, right until the next election. At that time, we will be allocating more monies to that.
