Mr. Speaker, with its guaranteed advances, prime fur bonus and grubstake, the GNWT’s Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program is the envy of the Canadian trapping industry. The returns of this small but dynamic made-in-the-NWT program to our trapping industry continue to impress.
The Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program provides NWT trappers with one-window access to the international fur auction market. It works with the Fur Harvesters Auction to promote wild NWT fur, while educating and training resident trappers to maximize their returns with best practices for trapping and pelt preparation.
The results of this approach can be seen in last year’s trapping season, the best in over 30 years for NWT trappers with total returns to participants in our trapping industry exceeding $2.7 million and demand is expected to remain strong this year.
Of course, this success is due to our territory’s growing community of committed and hardworking trappers. Wild fur from the NWT is world renowned for its top-class quality and fetches the top prices at auction. NWT marten, which comprises almost 75 percent of our territory’s harvest annually, is in huge demand in all markets, including the European Union and now the Asia Pacific.
Recently a trade mission to China took a delegation from the GNWT to the 40th Annual Beijing Fur and
Leather Show. China leads the world in manufacturing fur garments and has a continuous demand for high-quality fur products. Currently 80 percent of all NWT wild fur ends up in China, indicating that our genuine Mackenzie Valley fur is recognized as a premium product that Chinese designers want to work with.
Last year a small amount of marten, branded with the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur label, fetched an astronomical $1,300 per pelt. But this type of success would not be attainable if trappers did not first learn and invest the time in properly handling and preparing their fur.
Our trappers are the very best in their trade and, as a result, so is the fur they ship to market.
Mr. Speaker, the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program was expanded a few years ago to address the long-outstanding challenge, faced by traditional arts and crafts producers in the NWT, of finding reasonably priced and properly prepared furs and hides to support their livelihood. The expansion diversifies our economy by encouraging trappers and craft producers in all regions to become more involved in their industries.
Today the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur - Hide and Fur Procurement Program provides producers of traditionally tanned moose and caribou hides with a market to sell their finished hides. It then re-sells these hides to NWT-based arts and crafts producers at the same price.
We also buy NWT seal and beaver pelts directly from auction, arranging for them to be tanned and dressed before returning them to the NWT to sell on a cost-neutral basis to NWT artists and producers.
Through this expansion of the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program, our government has been able to offer seal harvesters a precedent-setting $55 per pelt. While traditional markets for seal pelts have been wiped out by the European Union’s ban on sealskins, here in the NWT we cannot keep up with the demand from our arts and crafts sector and in the near future we will be increasing the price paid for seal pelts to increase our supply.
Mr. Speaker, it is estimated that fur bought and sold through this program last year generated almost $350,000 for craft producers in the NWT. Their beautiful creations promote our cultural diversity and are part of our socially responsible and environmentally sustainable Economic Development Strategy.
The release of the NWT Economic Opportunities Strategy last year confirmed that we need to build on the success of our Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program and look to broadening its scope.
I am happy to advise Members today that the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment will be introducing a pilot project this year to purchase muskox hides from hunters and make these available for sale to leather and qiviut producers in southern Canada and abroad. The department also intends to expand the Hide and Fur Procurement Program to include more species of fur aimed at our traditional arts and fine crafts sector.
Mr. Speaker, the NWT Economic Opportunities Strategy, like this government, recognizes and endorses the important role of traditional pursuits in our economy.
By supporting the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program and the Hide and Fur Procurement Program, this government will continue to support and promote excellence in our traditional economy from the trapline through to the marketplace. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.