Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of ENR. I’d like to ask the Minister to provide the House with an update on his official meeting with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation on the sensitive issue that we’ve been dealing with for the time being here. Can the Minister provide an update on his meeting with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve had some discussions with some of the Yellowknives. We’ve also had some contact with the national chief, Bill Erasmus, about a process to possibly help us work to resolve the current circumstance with the Yellowknives and the access to caribou and our offer to work with them to hunt outside the band area as well as a very small controlled hunt within the band area.
I know you have mentioned this in the House, that you hope to have some conclusion and resolution to this critical issue here. I’ve been hearing this for almost a week and a half or two weeks. I want to ask the Minister about concluding this issue with the Yellowknives First Nation if he can give me a date on hoping that both sides are satisfactory and a conclusion or resolution can be imminent and this issue can be put to bed.
I think everybody would like to have this resolved as soon as possible. One of the issues is the Dene Nation has come forward with this and they want confirmation that they are speaking on behalf of the chiefs on this issue. The suggestion was to each identify a person or staff member to be able to sit down and start negotiating some of the outstanding issues. We’re involved in that process at this point.
About identifying some of the outstanding issues, is there a time frame of when this issue will be resolved? Is the Minister willing to commit, even 24/7, to have this discussion done, to have a sit down with the Yellowknives First Nation and Dene Nation, and come up with an agreement like in the good old days when we negotiated our land claim agreements?
I’d like to point out that we’ve had six meetings with the Tlicho Government and Tlicho people. We’ve had three very successful community hunts outside the band area, working with the Tlicho communities, and got caribou into the communities to be dispersed and distributed. We’re looking to have the same kind of arrangement with the Yellowknives. We have an offer on the table in terms of a small controlled hunting zone working with our own biologists and elders based on traditional knowledge as well as the science. We’re waiting for specific feedback to that issue. As well, we have on another track the discussions that I’ve just touched on with the Dene Nation.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Congratulations on your success in the Tlicho region. I’m talking about the Yellowknives Dene and their issue here. I’d like to ask the Minister again if he would commit all his time and effort to his officials to sit down with the Yellowknives Dene and the Dene Nation involved here, sit down, go somewhere, hammer out a deal, hope that by this week we can have a deal. Listen to both sides, come out with an issue. This is a critical issue here. I ask the Minister if he can commit the time and effort and resources to hammer out a deal with the Yellowknives Dene.
One of the issues that the Member talks about meeting with the Yellowknives, which we’re prepared to do. At the same time we have the Dene Nation telling us that they’re acting on behalf of the Yellowknives. There’s some confusion that has to be cleared up in terms of who we are dealing with and has the decision-making authority to resolve this issue. We have our staff who have been, and continue to be, willing to sit down any time of the day or night to try to sort this out.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The time for question period has expired. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 7 on the Order Paper.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Return to item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
