Debates of October 25, 2012 (day 23)
MEMBER’S STATEMENT ON IMPACT OF BISON ANTHRAX OUTBREAK ON MOOSE POPULATIONS
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] I want to speak a bit in my language.
The moose is a large animal that thrives in the wild. For Aboriginal people, this huge animal is very important. In our culture we use the moose for clothing, food and tools. This is why moose are very important to us in our culture.
In regard to our ancestors, we cherish the moose and we use it for a lot of things. When we are hunting in the bush, we are hunting for our elders, our family. When we are hunting along the river, the person that I am talking about is a person that likes to be in the wild, in the bush, hunting. This person I am talking about was participating in a hunting party that was hunting along the river.
At this time that I’m talking about, there was some wildlife diseases that were starting to happen in my area. They were wondering why these things were happening. This is what I’m going to be talking about today. This disease that prevailed among the bison was an organic disease that originates from the earth. This happens when it is moist and hot. There was a lot of activity during this time that the bison were experiencing this disease.
We have also experienced a lot of aircraft in the area during this bison disease prevention activity. As a result of that, the aircraft were disrupting the other animals such as the moose. Because of that, we didn’t have a lot of moose. There are other animals that have been affected because of this disease amongst the bison. We along the Mackenzie River are wondering if maybe the monitoring of the animals that we consider important, such as moose, we would appreciate it if it was monitored better. What I am thinking is that because of the disruption by aircraft is one of the reasons we didn’t have much moose in our area this fall. Mahsi. [Translation ends]
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.