Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement today concerns the Government of the Northwest Territories' support for the fur garment manufacturing industry.

Mr. Speaker, the fur garment manufacturing industry is a relatively small industry in the North, yet at the same time it helps to capitalize on the skills and capacities of many Northerners that are unsuited to work in the non-renewable resource sector. In particular, the work that the industry provides can lend itself well to the cottage industry and home production techniques that allow Northerners with traditional skills to participate in the wage economy.

It is important that the government moves forward and provides support for the renewable resource industry; that it takes steps to ensure all sectors of the northern society can participate in economic growth and opportunity. The NWT Economic Strategy 2000 document commits in paragraph 46 to develop a more co-ordinated approach to training, raw material supply, product development and marketing in regards to arts, crafts and cultural industries.

However, Mr. Speaker, I have a great concern that support currently shown by the Government of the Northwest Territories towards this industry and towards the fur sector in the North as a whole is uncoordinated, ad hoc and ineffective.

In my own riding, Dene Fur Clouds, the Fort Providence-based fur garment producer working with the NWT Development Corporation, has experienced continuing frustration and a lack of focused attention to the community-based business. This is a business that is committed to a realistic commercial approach to the manufacture and design of unique knitted fur products for sale both in southern and northern Canada. It is certainly not what some would call a "make work" project. Since 1996, targeted training and product development in conjunction with southern partners and northern, aboriginal designers, have combined to position Dene Fur Clouds as a supplier of unique, high quality products.

Dene Fur Clouds now has seven trained and experienced local producers, specialized knit fur machines, and a modern building that was committed to and recently completed by the community development corporation in order to provide manufacturing space for the business.

However, now that this has been done, it would seem that meaningful support from the NWT Development Corporation and presumably therefore from the GNWT has disappeared.