Michael Miltenberger

We have committed and are working with the Tlicho and we are prepared to work with the Yellowknives to make sure that they have access to subsistence hunting. We have not said you can’t hunt caribou. We have not said that we are taking away that right to hunt. What we are saying in this very broad area is that there is a herd in the middle, the Bathurst herd, which its numbers have diminished so dramatically that they cannot stand harvesting or they will cease to exist. There are other opportunities. We are working with communities to say we can continue to have subsistence harvest in those...

Mr. Speaker, the ban will protect the herd. There is opportunity to harvest outside the banned area that will allow the subsistence hunting, to allow communities to have access to caribou. I would point out that in the whole North Slave region there is the area where there is the ban, everywhere else there’s hunting only for aboriginal people. The focus is to protect and to keep the survival of the herd. We recognize and we can accommodate the issue of the hunting and access with the arrangements and resources that we have offered up. There have been, and continue to be, extensive meetings...

The Member is correct; the harvesting, the more the numbers dropped, the greater the impact of the harvesting, especially if harvesting levels stay the same as when the herd was healthy. In a state of decline, if we don’t affect those numbers, the impact is significant.

This whole process, Mr. Speaker, keeping in mind your caution about short answers, initially it was going to be worked through the Wekeezhii process, with our report to them with our recommendations, ourselves and the Tlicho Government. The dates that the Wekeezhii Board were able to do things moved, and as we got into December...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that I will deliver the budget address on Thursday, January 28, 2010. Thank you.

There are two key things that are available. We’ve made the offer in the Tlicho and with the Akaitcho and the Yellowknives to work with them to go to access some of the caribou in a controlled way, the Ahiak and the Bluenose-East, that we would work with them and assist them to do that, recognizing that these herds are under stress themselves, but we think we’re able to be able to manage that kind of harvest. We’ve also adjusted the bison tags so that both the Tlicho and the Akaitcho have access to a greater number of bison tags over the interim period. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re going to be briefing committee at the rise of the House and we have a lot of detail to share with the Members. But I think the big key point is I don’t think there is one particular reason you can point to. There is the human impact, there is the climate change, resource development, increased roads, accessibility, permafrost, insects, changing rain in the middle of winter. There’s any number of issues. I think one of the big points is that the human impact is probably going to be more significant than ever before in the past where there’s been the cycles and this...

Mr. Speaker, for the last four years Environment and Natural Resources has been working with wildlife co-management boards, aboriginal governments and organizations, communities and user groups, to share information on declining barren-ground caribou herds and develop and implement conservation measures. These have been very difficult decisions but there has been a willingness to work together so that this valuable resource can be sustained for future generations.

As Members are aware, the GNWT, through the NWT Act, has a responsibility to manage game in the NWT. In implementing conservation...

Our whole initiative is predicated and has been initiated by the recognition that we have a wildlife emergency and it’s a conservation issue that has to be addressed over this hunting period. That recognition and acknowledgement are keeping in mind the respect and can lead to respect the aboriginal rights and treaty rights and rights to hunt. But our fundamental obligation is to look after the wildlife; in this case, the Bathurst herd. Those two are linked and our rationale is that there was a gap here. There is an emergency. The hunting season had to be addressed. We took these very measured...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 9, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures) No. 2, 2009-2010, be read for the first time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A little over two years and I’m still trying to give the Member an answer that she likes, depending on the circumstance. The Member is very well aware we have a capital planning process. It’s intensely participated in. There’s huge interest given now coming forward that after the two years of stimulus money, that the capital plan is not going to be as big as it has been over the last two years. So the challenge for us as a Legislature is to look at the priorities on that list and if we want to replace something, what is that? If we are going to collectively decide we...