Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I'm perplexed because we have artisans who are looking for hides with which to, you know, to, you know, make items for sale to tourists and that. And we talk about the harvesters support programs. So one of the issues, one of the problems is that they don't have access to moose hide and caribou hide, and that's because I don't think there's an incentive to bring that out of the bush, and it's left there. So I guess I'd ask the Minister is there any incentive to harvesters to bring their moose hide and caribou hide out and so it can be accessed by artisans? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Simpson. Minister.

I don't know what hunters the Member is talking about, but I know the hunters that I've talked to, I've heard from, they bring the hide in. They're bringing them in to their communities. They do -- a lot of time the families use it. And so it's very much the hides are brought in, whether it's the caribou or the moose, they bring it in. And I know in my riding, we have elders that work on this and they sell it, or they actually -- I had one lady -- two ladies that I know, do the hides and then they make -- use that to make their slippers and their gloves and that. So in regards to for incentive to sell it to others, I will ask the deputy minister if we do have certain things in this program area. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. Deputy minister.

Mahsi. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess, you know, I have a lot of people come to my office, a lot of artisans selling goods, and a lot of those goods are made with commercially tanned hides. And I ask them all the time, why don't you use traditional tanned hides? Because we can't access the hides. No, we're not -- some of the hunters, harvesters, aren't bringing them out of the bush. And maybe they do it in Fort Simpson but I get people from Providence, Simpson, all over, come to me to sell stuff, and it's an issue.

So what I'd like to see, I guess, is that as part of this is that we provide -- that we can provide an incentive for harvesters to bring the hides out, if they're not, and make them available to artisans to tan. And whether we just -- my preference would be just give it to them. Like, you pay somebody $250, $500, I don't know what it would be, to bring it out of the bush and then turn it over to the artisan, and they can tan it. And that's kind of what I'd like to see, because there is a gap there. I know there's a gap there. You know, when you get tourists in, they -- when they pick something up, first thing they do is smell it. They want something that's traditionally tanned, so. And if access to the hide is an issue, then we should address it. And if we have to provide some incentive -- we provide incentive for everything else so, you know, there's no reason why we can't do that. So is that something your department can look at since you actually deal with the harvesters? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Simpson. Minister.

Yeah, we can potentially look at this, but for clarity I think the deputy minister would be able to say if we can do this this fiscal year coming up and moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. Deputy minister.

Mahsi. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I'm pleased to hear that, that you're willing to work with it because what I will do is I will send the artisans over there because what I proposed to them was that if they get the hides, that ITI then pay them to actually tan the hide, because I know how much work goes in to tan a hide. Like, it's not just a week's worth of work. It's longer than that. It's two weeks. Could be three weeks. And it's fairly intensive. And it was to provide the artisan a little extra money if they're tanning their own hides. So that's just a comment.

I'd just like to move on to personnel and active positions. With the vaccine policy, I'd like to ask how many staff in the -- I guess in corporate management I suppose at this point, were impacted by the policy? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Simpson. Minister.

For detail, I'm going to turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.

Deputy minister.

Mahsi. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So can you tell me for them to keep their positions, was it mandatory for them to have the vaccine?

Mahsi, Mr. Simpson. Minister.

So that's very much a Finance-HR issue. I know where the Member's going with this, but. So if their schedule requirements, i.e., getting on planes, that they need to make sure they're vaccinated and that's a federal government. If they need to be in a company that requires it, they need to do it. And if they don't and if they're not -- don't have the vaccine, then we have set in the policy through the territorial government with the Department of Finance that they follow that process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I guess it's safe to say that, you know, if somebody's required to fly and a requirement -- the federal requirement is you have to be vaccinated, then it is mandatory to have the vaccination for that position if you want to keep it?

I just want to go on here, is how many Indigenous employees would have been impacted?

Mahsi, Mr. Simpson. Minister.