Michael Miltenberger

We deal with the beaver as we do with any other animal under our Trapping Program. There’s a price that’s there for fur, and people are encouraged and we support trapping and all the trapping initiatives to make sure that we do have folks that trap and that they pass those skills on to the children. We don’t have a specific program specifically targeted at beaver. We do have some special attention paid to wolves, trying to encourage folks to harvest them and receive some benefit from that.

The Member made a comment about the populations skyrocketing. I’d have to check that with our staff, of...

There have been hundreds of thousands of dollars put into baseline work. We know that we need it on a regional basis, but clearly, we’re looking at starting near where the proposed activity, or potentially, will be. There has been work ongoing over the last couple of years, and that work is slated to continue as we work to get that critical information not only on baseline for water, groundwater, surface water but also for wildlife.

There has been about $4 million spent in the Sahtu since 2013 tied to baseline information, a lot of it tied to water in different areas, which is the information I’d be happy to share with the Member. We’ve taken over the Taiga lab from the federal government as part of devolution. That’s a $600,000 operation, and they provide a lot of critical scientific support. We have all the work done by Dr. Erin Kelly and her water staff in terms of spearheading and maintaining this community-based water monitoring. There has been an increase from the territorial government in work we’re doing not only...

I am very aware of my authorities as Environment Minister, and I have in fact used them in the not-too-distant past. The steps are being taken to deal with this issue. All the people of the Northwest Territories, all the governments of the Northwest Territories share a concern about the caribou and the need to make hard decisions, and it’s time not to worry about anything else but who speaks for the caribou or who speaks for the continuation of the herds. That’s going to be the people in this room; it’s going to be the Aboriginal governments and the leaders when we gather to make those hard...

Thank you. Once again, I appreciate the Member’s concern, and I can assure the Member that the intent here is by the very first part of November before the winter hunt really takes effect that we will have decisions made that will protect the caribou. There is a process for us to follow. This is a very complex area. We have the Yellowknives, we have the Northwest Territories Metis, we have Akaitcho, we have Tlicho, we have the Sahtu, we have the Inuvialuit as well as the territorial government and interest in the Northwest Territories Metis plus all the other southern and the Deh Cho, all that...

Thank you. We will ensure that we continue to touch all the appropriate bases as we provide the finished management plan to the Member as promised.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents, entitled “2013-2014 60th Annual Report, Northwest Territories Liquor Licensing Board and Liquor Enforcement” and “2013-2014 60th Annual Report, Northwest Territories Liquor Commission.” Thank you.

That is an option that we have used in other locales and we are definitely looking at that. We’re looking at the possibility of finding somebody with a tag that would be prepared to harvest one of the animals that are nuisance animals or, failing that, we would look at doing such an emergency cull on our own. So we are actively looking at that.

We haven’t touched the price of fuel, motive or non-motive. We haven’t touched those for years, as I’ve indicated. The concern is the impact on the cost of living where we already have the highest cost of living and highest cost of goods and services in many cases in the country.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have some of the lowest gas taxes in the country and we, as well, don’t charge for non-motive fuel. Thank you.