Mr. Speaker, trapping has long been a way of life for the people of the Northwest Territories. It’s a fundamental part of our culture. It is part of who we are.
Trapping is also an important economic activity, especially in many of our smaller communities. Trapping is not easy work, but it is rewarding work and it allows our people to get out on the land -- just as their ancestors have done for centuries -- and make a few dollars while they are at it.
Mr. Speaker, results from a recent fur auction show just how important that activity is to the Northwest Territories. At the Fur Harvesters Auction Inc. Wild Fur Sale held in North Bay, Ontario, in early January, $100,000 worth of genuine Mackenzie Valley furs were sold.
Worth noting from that sale is that all of our muskrats pelts were sold -- over 12,600 in all -- and 95 percent of our beaver and red fox fur pelts were also sold. Prices for muskrat, beaver and fox increased as much as 20 percent compared to last year’s prices, a strong indication that the market for furs is improving. Most of the demand at the North Bay auction came from Chinese and Greek buyers.
The next auction where genuine Mackenzie Valley furs will be sold is in Seattle, Washington, on February 19, and we look forward to more positive results from that event.
Mr. Speaker, to further illustrate the economic impact the trapping industry has on the Territory, I must mention our 2008-2009 sales results from Northwest Territories wild furs. From October 2008 to June 2009, $1.1 million worth of genuine Mackenzie Valley furs were sold.
These are outstanding results, given that demand for furs dropped substantially over the past couple of years due to the global recession. It is also a testament to the work done by this government to promote the traditional fur economy through the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program.
Since the program was created in 2002, our government has worked with Northwest Territories fur harvesters and the fur industry to support and promote the trapping industry. Thanks in large part to those efforts and the hard work of our trappers, genuine Mackenzie Valley furs are now recognized as some of the finest wild furs in the world.
Through initiatives like our guaranteed advances, the Prime Fur Bonus Program and the Grubstake Program, our government provides Northwest Territories trappers with the proper support and incentives to keep them harvesting wild fur and to keep this traditional way of life alive.
And, Mr. Speaker, there is evidence our work is paying off in more than just fur sales. It is paying off in the increased number of Northwest Territories residents who are going out on the land and actively trapping.
Last season the number of active trappers in the Northwest Territories was 809. That is up from 627 trappers in 2007-2008 -- a 30 percent increase -- and it is the highest number of active trappers we’ve had since the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program began. That growth in trappers is especially evident in the South Slave and Sahtu regions.
Mr. Speaker, the health of our trapping industry in the Northwest Territories is a good news story. Mega projects like the Mackenzie Gas Project tend to grab all of the attention and headlines, but it’s community-based sectors like the trapping industry that truly help diversify our economy, which is one of the goals of the 16th Legislative Assembly.
As the recent results from the North Bay auction and our 2008-2009 sales of genuine Mackenzie Valley furs prove, trapping is one of those opportunities, and I look forward to even better results in 2010. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
