I am very sad that the Minister has not come to an agreement and, in fact, would move independently, given that this is a government-to-government relationship we’re speaking of.

The Yellowknives Dene First Nation recognizes that Bathurst caribou need extra careful management and has cooperated with the department in this respect for several years. The leadership of the Yellowknives has not agreed to a tag system this year, yet the department is unilaterally issuing 2014 tags with the chief’s signature on them.

Why is the department disrespecting the leadership of the Yellowknives Dene First...

I appreciate that. The Minister has listened and, as I said, adjusted the policy from one acre to one-sixth. It’s still not capturing the providers we have in the NWT, in many cases. I know he is listening and I have confidence there.

My last concern is on this division, the department is responsible to take the GNWT lead on trade matters, specifically the Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. There are a lot of concerns amongst the public and I know amongst our municipalities about this. First of all, for everybody this will raise drug costs substantially, significantly...

Thanks for that clarification. I understand that the Minister of ITI is the new regulator for oil and gas in the NWT, and I understand now that we are contracting out to NEB and the industry-led regulator from Alberta, which has the atrocious environmental record that we all hear about every day on the radio, and the coal dam breach and slurry going down the Athabasca River heading for the NWT, and what did we hear the other day, six million litres a day coming out of one reservoir perched on the edge of the Athabasca River, and all this, you know, people with cancer. This is the regulator...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to address my questions to the Minister of Environment today. The Yellowknives Dene First Nation has had an understanding that ENR had offered support for a community caribou hunt. Yet, despite numerous requests, there has been no response up to this time. It’s getting close to the end of the season here.

Will the Minister honour the commitment made to support the community hunt for the Yellowknives Dene and Detah?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think this is one of the most important divisions in the whole government. Our economy is important and to the extent that we are successful in this area of diversification, I think that we will be successful with our economic development. It will reflect our work in education and health and so on, but the work actually diversify our basis of economic realization is so important.

I want to recognize that additional contributions to the film industry here, which I recognize our ongoing support to fisheries and agriculture through the Growing Forward federal support...

Thanks for that information. I’m willing to hold further until we get to that page. I would like to comment, however, that this process is going on without Members being fully informed and having any opportunity for input in this major piece of work. So much for the government’s claim to be consulting with anybody. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just before Christmas the governments of Canada and the NWT accepted the recommendations of the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board regarding the plan to deal with the arsenic at Giant Mine in Weledeh. Today I rise to recognize their decision and point out that this is an example of the current regulatory system functioning in the way it should, functioning in a way that produces the best result for people.

The Government of Canada and GNWT finally have a plan for Giant Mine that makes sense. Previously, they claimed that the frozen block method was the...

I appreciate that, and that’s exactly what we had our meetings with the outfitters about, and they were asking if we could ask this question, so I’m asking the Minister, would he be willing to have those discussions? The Minister raises a good point that the reclamation is part of this. There are some environmental liabilities out there and so on, and perhaps there’s another department that’s taking on significant work here, but I think we are talking about helping these businesses which, again, we encouraged, minimize their losses and minimize the impact on the environment and so on.

Given that we’ve got 34 days left before this office would take over this responsibility, is there an interim plan? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Really, I just wanted to say I’m happy to see the continuation and, in some cases, expansions in some of the support here, specifically that Tourism Diversification Program. I think we’re having some successes in that area and I’d welcome any evaluation that the department has done on the support provided to date.

I think the sport hunt outfitter and marketing support, I’m assuming this is support to help keep some of the outfitters alive over time, a rough period in our history here and I appreciate the continuation of that.

Finally, the little bump-up there, recognition...