Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to announce the start of a new program for fur harvesters. The fur pricing program improves upon and will replace the existing fur incentive subsidy.
The fur pricing program is part of the NWT fur strategy which is based on our harvesters marketing the highest quality fur they can produce. Through the fur pricing policy, the Government of the Northwest Territories will guarantee to pay harvesters a fixed minimum price for pelts that are in good condition and handled properly. The species included in the program for the 1994-95 harvesting season are seal, coloured fox, Arctic fox, marten, mink, muskrat and beaver. These species were selected because their numbers are healthy enough that they can stand the pressure of increased harvesting.
Pelts that are in poor condition, stretched improperly, damaged or poorly skinned will not be eligible for the guaranteed prices, but this fur will continue to be handled through the fur advance program, as has always been the case in the past. The Department of Renewable Resources will offer ongoing harvester education workshops in all regions which cover proper pelt handling techniques.
This new program is slightly different from the initial proposal reviewed by fur harvesters earlier this summer. The new program responds to the request from fur harvesters that the program maintain the fall payment. This means that harvesters will receive a set amount, according to the price schedule, when the pelt is brought in and a second instalment which will be paid just prior to the start of the next harvesting season.
Madam Speaker, as the government supports northern business and at least one-third of raw pelts are marketed through private fur vendors such as cooperatives, we were careful not to disrupt this market with our pricing. We have set the first instalment to harvesters as near to actual free market price for the pelts as possible. The second instalment will be paid to both harvesters who sell their fur through the Department of Renewable Resources and to those who sell their fur privately. In this way, harvesters who sell privately are not penalized and private fur vendors will not be adversely affected by the government's higher prices for raw furs.
Through the fur pricing program, harvesters of good quality fur will receive an increased price for their pelts, whether they sell them through Renewable Resources or a private fur vendor. The objectives of this program are to entice more people to participate in fur harvesting; to promote the harvest of good quality fur to assist in the market of NWT fur as the best money can buy; and, to provide a fair price to Inuit for seal pelts which, since the mid-1980s, they have not received. The guaranteed price schedule will be revised each year after consideration of current harvest levels, fur bearer population levels, market prices and the potential cost of the program.
Madam Speaker, I believe this new program, which goes into effect immediately, will encourage residents to return to the honourable occupation of harvesting fur and ensure the production of good quality fur to expand the NWT fur industry. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
---Applause