Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to acknowledge the hardworking trappers that are in the Northwest Territories. I was in Fort Good Hope and the people there are happy that winter is finally coming. They were quite concerned because of the late snowfall and the warm weather they have been having around the Sahtu region. Now that they are out there trapping, they noticed that the fuel prices have increased almost to $40 per gallon of gasoline. The trappers are saying that the way of life is very hard. They need close to $1,000 now to check their traplines. Some of them have 700 traps out there, 200 to 400 miles that they run their lines every trapping season. Even skidoos now, the trappers are saying about $10,000. People are having a hard time.
We also know from the Minister of ITI in his reports, that international countries such as China and Russia look to the Northwest Territories for the fine quality of furs that they can get, and they go at a very high premium price to get these furs from the Northwest Territories.
I want to ask the Minister what other types of support – I have a binder full of information – provides support for the trappers, as there’s nothing that supports for the fuel subsidy for the trappers that they can go out and make their way of life and train their children and do their business.
The trappers need our help. This is a dying art, it’s a fine art and it’s a lot of hard work and they teach their youngsters. There’s actually one young man in Colville Lake and we asked him a couple of years ago what he wanted to be when he grew up, and his eyes were smiling and his face was pumped up and he said, I want to be a trapper. So we need to support kids who want to be trappers.
I’ll have questions for the Minister of ITI later on. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
