Unfortunately, I haven’t memorized the number of health promotion officers that we have throughout the Northwest Territories, but I will get that information for the Member as quickly as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know we’ve put a lot of money into prevention and promotion. Is there a percentage of those dollars that are allocated to the training and the development of our community health representatives or health promotion officers? Are there dollars that are allocated to the training and development of our employees? Thank you.

Our employees are our most valuable resources and we’re committed to their continued development. I know that there are dollars available for training particular activities, but as far as the number of dollars allocated to train health promotion officers, I don’t have that number.

We are, as I’ve indicated, committed to our staff. We want them to be current. We want them to be up to date on practices and procedures, and we want them to be continually evolving so that they can be current at all times. So, I will do a little bit of digging and I’ll get some specific numbers for the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Growing up, my grandparents used to tell me stories of when people were limited to the amount of beaver they could harvest in a year, and it was just a handful. The game wardens, as they called them at the time, would go around and keep an eye out on people’s axes as they used them to chop open beaver houses. But since then we’ve had an explosion in the population of the species of beaver, also foxes and mink, but the fur advance doesn’t match that. It’s a minimum of a $25 advance for these furs and people are paying $45 to $50 for five gallons of gas. It just doesn’t match the cost of living up there with the advance, so my constituents would like to see an increase in this.

Is the Minister willing to work on making changes to the Fur Pricing Program? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The prices are set at a five-year rolling average and they’re reviewed every year. However, I’d be happy to sit down and talk to the Member about specifics if he has any dollar figures that he’s looking at. We have to manage the money that’s available to run this program, and the beaver prices are very low at the market values. Thank you.

As the Minister knows, we have the best fur in the world. There is a huge demand, you see it all the time, for sheared beaver, beavertail wallets. It’s just like snakeskin. I had one a few years back; it was pretty nice.

But as the Minister is just taking this department back on, I think it’s time that we make this review. Even changing it to $45 or $50 for an advance, that would help out the harvesters a great deal. Is the Minister willing to do this?

Thank you. Yes. One of the things we’ll be doing is doing a review, and as the Member has requested and suggested, we’ll be looking at that particular issue as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Was that a yes that he’ll increase it to $45 or $50? Thank you.

Thank you. I’d have to check Hansard. I understood the question to be that since we’re taking it back over, would we look at the prices and see if we would consider moving it from $45 to $50 and I said yes, we would consider looking at that as we get this back into ENR’s authority. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question is to do with the management of wildlife. Does the Minister have funds that they could contribute to encouraging our people to harvest more of these species? Thank you.

We have funds tied up in the Community Harvesters Assistance Program. We have some money still available in the Western Harvesters Assistance Program as well. As well, we have the fur pricing advances that we do have and prime pelt fund as well. So we do have some funds available. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 8 written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the terms of reference for a Special Committee on Transition Matters.

Good afternoon. I would like to call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’d like to deal with Bill 46 and, following that, Tabled Document 188-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2015-2016, the Department of Education.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?

We’ll continue after a short break.

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Committee, before us today is Bill 46, Deline Final Self-Government Agreement Act. I’d like to ask Premier McLeod if he would like to deliver his opening comments on this bill. Premier McLeod.