Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Emerging Wisely across the Northwest Territories: has the GNWT considered providing additional funding through the Community Harvester Assistance Program or other means to assist families to go and get out on the land? I will ask Madam Premier. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mahsi Member for Nunakput. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is that ENR will be looking at the monies that they give for the harvesting program, the harvesting assistance program, to see what they can do to support it, but there is also other funding that has come in. Indigenous governments were given money through the federal government for COVID-19. Health and Social Services gave money for the At Home on the Land initiative to Indigenous governments. There may be some flexibility within other programs, as well, so there are various streams of monies that are coming for the Indigenous governments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am really happy to hear that. I need to know. It was all front-end loaded in regard to when this happened and everybody, and the money was flowing in regard to the communities and for the Inuvialuit, the Gwich'in. Everybody got their funds to go and get out on the land, but now I guess we are mid-COVID-19. Is there any more funding that is going to be announced to our local communities or to our local hunters and trappers and harvesters?
As spoken, we are in the process, ENR is in the process, of reviewing the harvester assistance program to see how we can make that more flexible, but the key thing is that the Indigenous governments did receive federal money. I do not know, Mr. Speaker, how much that was, respectfully. It was given directly to the Indigenous governments. However, my understanding from the department is that the federal government is looking at perhaps supporting more money to the Indigenous governments for COVID-19.
I think they ran out of money. Even a modest bump in funding, Mr. Speaker, would help our community and the lowest income people who need to get out on the land. The GNWT has done an analysis to determine how much funding would be needed to assist residents to comply with public health orders to getting them back out on the land and supporting them.
Absolutely, any Indigenous governments that need help in any areas, if it's within our powers as the Government of the Northwest Territories, then definitely we would be willing to sit down with them to help them to fill out applications, to understand the processes, to find out where resources are. Call and we will answer.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
I have your cellphone number.
---Laughter
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just am really thankful for that, the Premier committing to help and assist and making sure that the Cabinet and herself commit to getting additional funding that might be available for this coming summer as soon as possible because we are still in the midst of COVID-19. We are still in a pandemic. People are still really scared in regard to COVID-19, and just making sure that they are taken care of. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. That is more of a comment. Would you like to respond, Honourable Premier?
Absolutely. Like I said, our job, especially with Indigenous affairs, is to help the Indigenous governments. However, I do need to clarify that the Indigenous governments, and I am respectful of them, have asked me to not interfere with their federal funding, that they wanted it directly. I have advocated and lobbied the federal government that that money should go directly to the Indigenous governments, so it's a fine line. I am careful of how I lobby. I will lobby for additional money, but I will not ask where, how much, or to whom because I think we are crossing a line at that point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
