Michael Miltenberger

I’ll indicate two things. First, these discussions are at the very preliminary stage and there is no link between these two. We are looking at trying to make sure the Taltson project is able to go ahead and if we don’t within the next six to eight months come up with a way to make that happen, the Taltson project, for all intents and purposes, at least for the life of this Assembly and probably for at least three years or more will be put on a shelf. So there is no link. The issue is trying to make sure that we can move ahead on the Taltson. Thank you.

I would be interested in the Member’s definition of a revolutionary approach before I could answer fully that specific question, but I can indicate to the Member that we have already started the discussions and the planning to bring together the chairs of the co-management boards and representatives where there are no co-management boards to look at the overlap areas, to look at, as we pointed out yesterday in our presentation, the decline of herds all across the Northwest Territories and how do we come to an understanding similar to what’s being attempted with the Porcupine Caribou herd, some...

The enabling authority would come under the Northwest Territories Act. Two sections come to mind, 16 and 18 with subsequent amendments to 18, as well as the Wildlife Act which flows under the Northwest Territories Act. Thank you.

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 GNWT has supported the Tlicho process, right from its inception to its conclusion, in signing off with implementation, and we continue to work and have been in contact with officials with the information. We’ve submitted our reports, work is being done, the board is setting itself up to do the work necessary to listen to all the interveners and make their determination and recommendations back to the GNWT and the Tlicho Government. So we are doing all things we think we can do from every aspect of this particular complex problem. Thank you.

Thank you. The board has an authority that they are operating under and they are doing the work that’s necessary. They are getting up and running. There has been some slippage in the dates that they put forward, and in the meantime, as I’ve indicated, the thing that we’re concentrating on is not so much trying to involve ourselves in how they do their business. They know the urgency and they’re doing everything to meet the targets. Our priority has been to make the right decisions during this hunting season where we cannot afford another unregulated harvest, is to put the ban in place to give...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled Northwest Territories Main Estimates, 2010-2011. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is with great pleasure and honour to be able to recognize my dearly beloved in the gallery, Jeri.

Given the very preliminary nature of our discussions, we are having some very basic discussions. The folks from ATCO are looking at all the public information that’s on the website to come up with a full understanding of the project. We are waiting to hear back from them in terms of, we were sharing some documents in terms of some basic points, principles that we could possibly look at if we were going to proceed with the discussions. Thank you.