Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my statement earlier, the main estimate in regards to managing wildlife in the Northwest Territories is no longer the Government of the Northwest Territories. It is the Wildlife Boards which have been established under land claim agreements. For those areas where there are no land claim agreements, they still have the right under National Resources Agreements with Ottawa to ensure their fundamental rights are there.
Mr. Speaker, I also want to follow up on questions from my colleague Mr. Menicoche. He mentioned certain sections. Is there a specific section that you can provide to this House on exactly how the decisions were made and under one section, made reference to an amendment or basically Order-in-Council which was passed in 1960. It does talk about certain species in that act in regards to the barren-ground caribou, muskox, polar bear, wood buffalo, but yet, Mr. Speaker, the question has to be asked. If that is the Order-in-Council you are following, why is it that this government has been licensing outfitters and allowing major mining development to take place in this herd’s habitat and do nothing about it? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me restate once again that we do have the authority and we acted on it with very great care and, in our belief, a very measured way. The issue that the Member talks about, resource developments have gone through full environmental assessments, permitting and the regulatory process and have received their approval to operate. While there is some broader issue coming to light as people look at the affects of cumulative impacts that is yet to be dealt with. But all those projects went through a process that fully engaged all Northerners, all the aboriginal governments and we followed that every step of the way. The outfitters and the time when the numbers were higher were in business but, at this point, there is no harvest but aboriginal harvest in the North Slave. With the Tlicho that covers the area of the Bluenose-East, the Bathurst and with the Ahiak as well are present.
Mr. Speaker, in the land claim agreement, it is pretty clear that prior to any government actions, they have to allow the management authorities to look at those requirements or look at the proposal that the Minister wants to put forward and allow them an opportunity to oversee that proposal, look at the proposal, have public hearings and meetings, have workshops or whatever they have to do to consult with their members. I would like to ask the Minister exactly under the land claim agreements where it clearly stipulates that the review of proposal of wildlife management actions have to be passed through the management authorities. Did the Minister follow that authority knowing the Wekeezhii board has not had an opportunity to take a full consultation on this matter, is not going to make a decision any time soon, but yet that process has not been enacted? I would like to ask the Minister, have you used that land claims process to come up with a workable solution before you made that decision?
Mr. Speaker, the normal course of events where co-management boards are in a place, that is fully functioning, that is the practice. Every agreement has a caveat or clause in there that, in case of emergency or situations related to conservation and safety, the Minister has the authority to act, to be used very carefully and judiciously but it is there. In the Tlicho, the Wekeezhii process is starting up. In the Akaitcho, there is no land claim, so we have a complex situation here. The Northwest Territories Metis don’t have a settled claim either.
So we have a very complex process here, a complex political arrangement. The Wekeezhii process was to be completed prior to the hunting season. It wasn’t. We have a gap where we have numbers telling us the herd is in great decline and in serious need of protection. That if something wasn’t done and we had another hunting season of 7,000 to 10,000 animals being taken out of this herd, that it would be putting it very close to the brink of extinction. Therefore, we were of the opinion that we had to act with the band for this very short period. We had the support of the Métis, the Tlicho, and the Northwest Territories Métis, and we’re working with Yellowknives to resolve the outstanding issues.
One of the main components of the land claim agreements is that we knew at some point we were going to come to this situation. In the future, going forward, under the land claim agreements there’s a section that talks about the total allowable harvest that has to be considered before you make a decision to take anyone’s harvesting rights away. There is a certain process of who gets excluded first, second, third, fourth, but the last person that you exclude is the aboriginal harvester in those authority areas. Has this government done an evaluation regarding the allowable harvest levels in this region that is being affected?
We have followed that process, that priority list. The only hunting and harvesting that is left in the North Slave at all is the aboriginal harvest. We have indicated that the numbers tell us that the one herd, the Bathurst herd, is in great serious danger of almost extinction if we don’t do anything. We’ve made the decision to help protect the herd to give it a chance to recover. We’ve indicated there are two other herds in the region that have greater capacity to sustain some more harvest, those being the Bluenose-East and the Ahiak. We’re working with the aboriginal governments to in fact take advantage of that harvest opportunity and to ensure that we still honour the aboriginal right to harvest, and we do once again have the support of the Métis, the Tlicho, and we’re working with the Yellowknives, as we speak, to try to resolve the outstanding issues with them.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Again I’d like to ask the Minister if he can give us documentation before this House on exactly what decision was made. Finally, was the Cabinet directive given to make that decision?
Cabinet was apprised. The discussion was had. As Minister with the authority to make that decision after that, I proceeded to in fact carry out with the actions that have happened since then.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
