Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I raise today’s Member’s statement as an opportunity to respond to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Minister’s statement, which is an update on the NWT barren ground caribou numbers.
First off, I want to thank the Minister for providing the House a small update. I think it’s a snapshot of our particular situation, but it is disappointing to hear the facts, that we still have a number of herds missing, without the details.
He points out, quite clearly, that the Bluenose-East and the Porcupine numbers, due to weather, we were not able to get clear and accurate numbers. So in other words, we couldn’t operate with that.
There is some good news. I want to thank the Minister for being at least the messenger of good news that the Cape Bathurst herd and the Bluenose-West are increasing and, predictably, we are very hopeful that the Bluenose-East at 100,000 continues to show strong numbers. That now starts to open up the question of what are we going to do with these particular numbers.
Many of the outfitters as well as resident hunters and I, do hear as well from Aboriginal rights holders, who ask themselves from time to time what numbers are we actually working towards. It seems to be shifting and we need clear transparency on these particular numbers. If we are going to open up the harvest one day and expand the harvest to what it was at one time, we need to understand what we are working towards.
I find it disappointing that we don’t have any indication in the Minister’s statement as to how we will continue to work with industry that is being mothballed as we speak. Outfitters have certainly paid a pound of flesh as they’ve waited patiently for the outfitting industry to once again return to its great excitement. We all know that the outfitters provided great employment; we had an excellent reputation in the Northwest Territories to provide opportunities. Some of the meat, in many cases that was provided, was given to the small communities and those who needed it, and let us not forget about the taxation and the millions of dollars that was brought into the Northwest Territories.
The primary concerns are in where are we going. We’ve got some of these numbers, not all, I respect that that may not have been possible, but where are we going with these particular numbers? Full transparency is the issue on this one, so when the outfitters look forward to the future, they know where they’re going. We cannot continue this attitude of the 12th of never as our motto of one day we will open the outfitting opportunities, one day resident hunters will hunt.
If the Minister could provide the House with real numbers, we all know what we’re in together fighting for. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
