Debates of June 2, 2004 (day 18)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the course of our time, we spend a huge amount of time trying to deal with the major social problems and the costs associated with those problems and very seldom finding corrective methods to deal with them.

There is one aspect of our lifestyle in the Northwest Territories that is very important to indigenous northerners, and those who understand the value of a renewable resource lifestyle would understand my statement today.

Mr. Speaker, in the history of the Mackenzie Delta, we have over 25,000 lakes, approximately 125,000 kilometres of waterways, and I have been told by a hydrologist that about one million gallons of water flows on a per-second basis out from the Mackenzie Delta, which is the 12th largest delta in the world, into the Beaufort Sea area.

The point I am trying to make today, Mr. Speaker, is we are concluding the annual muskrat hunting season. People are beginning to look at moving into town to celebrate their harvest levels. They go to RWED to get their fur cheques and advances. They celebrate for a few weeks and prepare to go into the oil camps in early July and to their fish camps to make dry fish. We get to participate in some tourism activities that occur along the Mackenzie Delta waterways, along the Dempster Highway. I am going to say before we travel back home that I would like to congratulate all those Members who participate in this annual muskrat spring hunting season. I know I have done that many times in our history and I see the Member for Mackenzie Delta smiling because we quite often cross paths in many waterways in the Mackenzie Delta.

Mr. Speaker, I am sure there are many, many stories told of one another as they climb different riverbanks and watch the ice floes go by. It becomes a story in itself. We would like to, at some point, in the near future, invite the Minister of RWED because I was told he has very little experience…

---Laughter

I think it would be a good opportunity for him to come out and learn the hunting and trapping across our vast lands here in the Mackenzie Delta and the Deh Cho.

Finally, I want to wish everyone back home a very joyous summer and especially have a safe boating season. We always seem to have some tragedy on the river and in the waterways. So I encourage you to have a safe summer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause