Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of ITI… I talked about the activity of the Sahtu people who still continue to use the land through different methods, different avenues we have today. I know that I did ask a question at one time, I’m not too sure if it was to Mr. Ramsay, on the support that’s given to people who want to continue to strengthen and pursue their traditional way of life in the year 2014.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a number of supports through the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment that help people get out on the land through the CHAP funding, also the Take a Kid Trapping Program that we have. We’ve also got some other programs that we’ve got up and running – Take a Kid Gardening Program, that’s run by the regions around the territory – we’ll also encourage people to get out on the land and pursue traditional-type activities. Thank you.
Thank you. In the Sahtu region, there is a high rate of families that are not working today that are looking for work. A lot of these families would love to pursue a lifestyle on the land.
I ask the Minister, has he had any type of discussion yet as to what type of activities or programs could be looked at to support young families who are not working, who want to go on the land? Is there any type of family harvesting assistance program for these young people?
Thank you. I talked of some earlier and the issue the Member brings up, of course, runs across the numerous departments with the Government of the Northwest Territories, Health and Social Services, Education, Culture and Employment, certainly ITI. We have initiatives, the Healthy Lifestyle Initiative, that encourages people to pursue activities and certainly that’s a discussion that we have to continue to have on how to get people out on the land pursuing their traditional activities.
As we mentioned, we have programs and I’d be more than happy to talk to the Member and the other Regular Members about opportunities to enhance how we can get more people out pursing traditional activities on the land. Thank you.
Thank you. This spring, people in Deline, Colville Lake, Fort Good Hope, Norman Wells and Tulita certainly took advantage of the geese coming over into the Sahtu region and one of the advantages of our communities that show a lot of people going out on the land was because of their agreements with the helicopter companies that they have. The helicopters today are being used by community members to get people on the land. I want to ask the Minister in regard to supporting the families and the communities in regard to some traditional programs, I guess we could look at where we can do some economical activities when they’re in their areas where they’re hunting.
We do have funding that gets down to the regional level and the community level that folks can access at the community level to help them get out on the land hunting or trapping, and certainly that’s something we will continue to support. As far as providing assistance for helicopters to take folks out, that’s something we would have to continue to discuss with the Member.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, I know the communities have done a great job with the helicopter companies and have somehow made arrangements for that benefit to happen every spring, and certainly in talking to the helicopter pilot, there were a lot of hours flying into the communities bringing people out to the spring hunt and locations where they were going to spend some time. I just want to continue to support that avenue.
Is there any type of programs in ITI that will look at a youth program that will specifically teach the youth about the traditional way of life given by some of our community professors who know how to live off the land?
We do have the Take a Kid Trapping Program, Take a Kid Harvesting Program. It’s $125,000 a year. We also have the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program at $600,000 a year. We also have the Western Harvesters Assistance Program, or WHAP, that’s $15 million a year. We also support local wildlife committees. We also look at the Community Harvesters Assistance Program, that’s another $1 million that we put out there. We do also have a Harvesters Disaster Compensation Program that we run through the Department of ITI, all there to assist people as they pursue traditional lifestyles on the land. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
