I know the department has been working on this new act for a long time, well over 10 years. However, the majority of the work on the existing act has been completed since the Assembly passed the Species at Risk Act two years ago. Mr. Speaker, I think it’s important to applaud the Minister and his department for recognizing treaty rights and land claim agreements, and for actively involving the Aboriginal governments throughout the NWT in drafting of this new act. They had a legal requirement to do this and I’m glad that the Minister and his department lived up to this responsibility. However...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Quite frankly, I am in no way, shape or form negating all the hard work that’s been done by this department with respect to the Wildlife Act. I respect the unique approach that they’ve taken with respect to involving the Aboriginal governments. In fact, I applaud it. I think it’s exactly the right thing to do. I am also not getting specifically into detail of the act. We can do that at another time. I’m talking about consultation process. I’m talking about listening to the people of Northwest Territories. I’m talking about hearing what they have to say and assuring them...

For the record, I said earlier that I actually applaud the department and the Minister for the unique process that they put in place. I think it’s important, I think they did the right thing, but we’re still a public government and we still need to make sure that we hear the other half of the population, 50 percent of the population that don’t feel that they’ve been heard, and it’s the consultation process. Hay River had a problem with the consultation process. The Minister’s department went in there, they advertised somewhere, nobody is quite sure because nobody showed up. Turns out there was...

In fact, it’s just insulting to responsible hunters of the Northwest Territories who are not covered by land claims or treaties. This group’s voice is clearly not being heard.

This act is not ready to be presented in the House. It won’t be ready until the department conducts real consultation in good faith with interested stakeholders throughout the Northwest Territories.

At the appropriate time I will be asking the Minister responsible some questions on this topic.

Given the numbers, there certainly appears to be an opportunity here to help this industry and I suppose I could ask the Minister for ITI, but since I’m asking the Minister for ENR I’m wondering if he could tell us if they’d be willing to provide some sort of support to the outfitters who are primarily hunting the Bluenose. This is a lot of money in the Northwest Territories that has disappeared and if these numbers are solid again, why would we not stand behind this industry or help them out?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources. Yesterday the Minister came out with a Minister’s statement indicating, or outlining the caribou numbers in the Northwest Territories, and in those numbers there was an indication that the Bluenose caribou herd seems to be rebuilding a little bit, to the point where our number is at about 98,000 caribou. I’m sure the Minister won’t be surprised to hear that when I got to work this morning I had a number of e-mails from outfitters who indicated that there are at least three...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to give some public profile to a nationwide campaign recently re-established here in Yellowknife. Viewers and visitors in the gallery may have noticed that some of us today are wearing a white ribbon on our lapel. The White Ribbon Campaign began in Canada in 1991 when a handful of men decided that they have the responsibility to urge men to speak out about violence against women. They used a white ribbon to symbolize men’s opposition to violence against women.

In its first year, 100,000 men across Canada wore a white ribbon while countless others were drawn...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good response. I’m not sure it was a response to the question that I was asking. The outfitters primarily take very small numbers and they primarily take adult males, which has a smaller impact on the decline. So my question is: Given what the outfitters take, given the money that comes in, can we count on this Cabinet and this Minister to find a way to support this industry and if the Bluenose numbers are solid, as indicated yesterday, why would we not stand behind this industry? Thank you.

I thank the Minister for that response. In light of these numbers that have now come out, I think some of these outfitters who can demonstrate that they primarily hunt the Bluenose... I mean, there’s certainly an opportunity here for discussion, and my question was more specific to what is the process that these outfitters who primarily hunt the Bluenose caribou, what’s the process that they can use to go back to the review board, the Wek’eezhii, to see if there are any opportunities for these particular outfitters to get some tags so that we can start to rebuild this industry, which, for all...

I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize a couple of the Pages that have been working for us over the last couple of weeks from the Great Slave riding: Alison Buckland and Desiree Brown. Pages do important work for us and we all appreciate what they do.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to recognize Verna and Gay, as well, and thank them so much for all they’ve done for us over the last two years for Gay and three years for Verna. That’s how long I’ve been here. Thank you both so very much.