These positive results, Mr. Speaker, are a reflection of many years of promotion, support and training facilitated by our government through the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program.
This year we have 728 people delivering fur to this program, which represents a 16 percent increase in participants overall; something that bodes well for our government’s strategic priority to pursue growth and diversification in the Northwest Territories economy, but, more importantly, in the preservation of the traditional economy and specifically our trapping industry in the North.
Mr. Speaker, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment is also investing in the preservation of another traditional life skill: the construction of birch bark canoes. This skill is one that has existed in the Deh Cho for thousands of years. However, with the passing of elders and harvesters experienced in the art of making canoes, it is a traditional life skill that we risk losing.
Beginning June 3rd , the Liidlii Kue First Nation is
sponsoring a project in Fort Simpson that will see a number of youth learn this rare, time-honoured and valuable traditional art.
Over the 10-day course, young students will learn how to gather material from the bush, carve the ribs and frame of the canoe, cover the frame with birch bark and, finally, to seal the birch bark with spruce sap and gum to make it water tight.
We anticipate that the proposed June 12th completion date of the canoe will coincide with Treaty Day celebrations in Fort Simpson. The young people participating in this program will then present the finished canoe to the community as part of the celebrations.
Mr. Speaker, this initiative in Fort Simpson is one of many traditional life skills projects provided annually for school-age youth under the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment’s Take a Kid Trapping Program. Since 2002, over 5,000 youth have participated in different components of the program. Last year alone, 1,450 young people participated in the program.
The program success is due in large part to the strong partnership that exists between the departments of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Municipal and Community Affairs, Environment and Natural Resources, and Education, Culture and Employment and the talent and skills of the many local residents and elders who support the program in various communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.