Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members of this Assembly know, soap stone carvings are a major source of income for the communities of Kimmirut and Cape Dorset. These two communities, which I also represent, are world renowned for producing some of the very best Inuit carvings to come out of the north. To give some idea of the importance of this economy, Kimmirut, with a population of 450 produces more than a half a million dollars worth of art each year. Cape Dorset, with a population of around 1,300 produces more than $2.2 million worth of art annually. Mr. Speaker, this is a significant amount of revenue which touches almost every member of these two communities, especially given the high cost of living and unemployment rates in these communities.
This summer, the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development in partnership with Qikiqtani inuit Association and its and its business arm Qikiqtaaluk Corporation undertook a clean up of two major quarry sites close to Cape Dorset and Kimmirut. For those that are not familiar with quarry sites, these are basically free for all mining operations that are operated by hand by picks, axe, shovels and crowbars. Not only did the project provide a long overdue clean up of these sites, more than 15 local people were hired to work on the projects. Also, due to the quarry clean up, Mr. Speaker, a half million dollars of high quality carving stone was accessed that otherwise would not have been available. This is a major return on the $100,000 investment to clean up the site. Mr. Speaker, I believe that these sites should be maintained through a smaller scale clean up on an ongoing, annual basis. This will achieve several things. One, it will provide some more local employment. It will require a smaller investment in one large scale cleaning operation every few years and, most importantly, it will improve the safety of these sites. I would like to thank Minister Kakfwi and his departmental staff for their support and I look forward to working with them again to ensure that this important project continues to be an ongoing project. Thank you very much.