Michael Miltenberger

I as well would like to take this opportunity to recognize some constituents: Mr. Ken Hudson, the president of the Métis Local in Fort Smith; hunter and carpenter, Louise Fraser, as well part of the Métis and a respected elder; and of course Betty Villebrun, President of the Northwest Territories Métis. Welcome.

The government was involved in the process up to this point and will continue to be involved fully in the process as we bring it forward to conclude the regulatory process.

All the information that we shared with committee has been shared across the North, around all the involved and affected aboriginal governments, stakeholders, when it comes to the Bathurst herd. But the work done, the work that was overviewed, by the ENR staff, that’s all information that we make the point of sharing because it’s such important valuable information for making decisions.

We also have, between ourselves and ITI, a very good idea of all the outfitters and the tags that they’ve used and that information as well, I believe, has been shared. But if the Member would like us to provide...

What we know with considerable certainty is from 2006 to 2009 the Bathurst herd numbers diminished from 120,000 to the neighbourhood of 30,000. We know, as well, with some considerable certainty that there’s a considerable number of variables, climate change, resource development, hunting, ease of access...(inaudible)...species, changes to climate, permafrost, those type of things that have all combined to have an impact on the herds, not only the Bathurst but herds across the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I’ll take that question as notice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of the assessment process and response process is going to be to look at the cost of the recommendations and our response to what that may cost so that we, in fact, know what the bill will be if we are going to recommend a certain course of action. Thank you.

We have committed to work with committee to brief them when we have sufficient work done and we have our communication plan that involves the release of the work going forward and we will be, at the appropriate times, making sure the public is aware of the work that we have done. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The process is underway. It was underway prior to the release of the report when we were certain that it was coming. We have staff with ENR in the lead from across departments. We’re working with the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline office in Hay River and we’re working through committee systems with deputies to pull together the response and the work on the responses for the JRP with a goal to hitting the timelines so we can make sure there’s no further delays that we can get our responses in to the National Energy Board.

Yes, the Member can anticipate that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Those are all good questions that need to be answered and that we’re going to be considering. No, we’re not anywhere near ready to have talks outside of government. The work is barely a couple weeks old and we have a lot more to do.