I believe we’ve got to do more than just promote. I think we have to invest.
I know that in the past they used to have programs called special Arctic grants, grants for that which were part of the economic development agreement we had with the federal government. There were a couple of hundred thousand dollars in that program, which was very successful in regard to people being able to harvest and apply for different programs under the special Arctic programs. I’m just wondering: is that something that’s being looked at between this department and ITI and also in regard to federal programs to see if we can track some of those dollars?
We hear about programs in Atlantic Canada. There’s an Atlantic economic diversification program, where there’s money to help out with the fishery industry. We hear about programs in regard to the provinces, in regard to the farm industry, cattle industry, but there’s very little by way of us pushing our own program in the North to promote renewable resource industry in the Northwest Territories and also dealing with the agriculture industry. I’d just like to know: are we doing anything to develop a program that will have program dollars involved so people can apply for programs to assist in the renewable resource sector?