Robert C. McLeod

Regardless if there is any budget coming forward or not, we still need to do the consultation because what people out there say is very important to us, budget or no budget session anymore.

The GNWT, we currently don't have any specific incentives for the harvest of grizzly bears in the NWT. Again, we will work with our co-management partners and see if we can come up with initiatives towards that if we find that they are a threat. As part of the monitoring program too, we are thinking that they would be able to monitor the number of grizzly bears that are actually following the caribou.

One of the stats that I found quite alarming when we were doing our tour was the fact that I think they followed them and they did the calf count at a certain time of year, and I believe they did...

The wolf incentive program is being run as a pilot project this year, this winter, to support the conservation and recovery of the two specific barren-ground herds, the Bathurst and Bluenose-East. We heard from our travels around the Tlicho a couple of weeks ago that many of the people there and a lot of the elders felt like the caribou were one of the main, or they took a fair share of the caribou, and they wanted to know what our plans were in trying to deal with that. This particular program is a pilot program that is aimed at those two specific herds for now.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "Main Estimates, 2019-2020"; and "Bearnet Communications to the Employees, February 5, 2019." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

What I am doing is I am leaving it to those whom we have tasked to negotiate on our behalf and those who are tasked to negotiate on the union's behalf, with the understanding that I would like to see them come to a resolution through mediation this weekend, and, failing that, then we will take the next steps then.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I responded to the Member for Yellowknife Centre before, we are going into mediation this weekend, and we are going there with an attitude that we would like to see an agreement reached that benefits both the UNW, GNWT, and the people who we have been elected to serve from across the Northwest Territories. So I am not going to commit to anything until we get past this process of mediation, and I would like to see an agreement reached through that process.

I will follow up on the status of the range plan. I will share it with this House, or I will share it with the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was glad that the Member was able to attend these sessions with me, and as I said in the sessions, I thought that it was very important that Regular Members come and listen to some of the concerns that the communities have firsthand. Again, I appreciate the Member taking the time to visit the communities with us, and also the Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh on our trip out to Detah. They had an opportunity to hear firsthand some of the concerns that the community was sharing.

We had a lot of community membership show up, we met with the community leaders...

Let's not presuppose that mediation is going to fail. The ultimate goal at the end of the day is to reach an agreement during mediation. Failing that, we will have a discussion at that time, but let's not presuppose the outcome of mediation before it even happens.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, I will not. What we were doing was providing information out there. If you read the statement very carefully, it does not encourage people to cross the picket line. It encourages them to speak to their union representative. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.