Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in the House today in response to what was tabled earlier this week by the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources entitled Management Actions for Barren Ground Caribou Herds. Immediately I was pleased to hear that we have some herds that are doing quite well, such as the Beverly and Ahiak herds as well as the Bluenose-East herd. Although what was presented as merely a proposal on the potential limited resident harvest of these herds, we were left yet again with many questions unanswered for consideration.
The Minister mentions that we have caribou calving ground surveys, population surveys and recruitment surveys that are ongoing in the co-management and management of the species. Can the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources indicate to this House the differences between the surveys mentioned in that briefing?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve committed a significant amount of money to continue to do baseline work on an ongoing basis on the various herds. There are the major surveys, then there’s the intermediate work that’s done to check the health of the herd. We’ve done that over the summer, as I indicated, over last year and concluding some this year that I laid out in my Member’s statement yesterday. They’ve given us some comfort – more than comfort – some certainty about the herd numbers, to the point where we’re looking at going back to the co-management boards and the consultation processes that are required to look at the current restrictions that are in place.
I do appreciate the Minister’s reply. I think the general population is quite confused. There are too many surveys out there. I think it would probably be well advised if the Minister of the department could be a bit more clear on what these surveys, or the outcome of these surveys, are going to be trying to achieve.
Another question I do have for the Minister of ENR: What is the formal format to allow resident hunters and commercial outfitters to have a meaningful input in all these upcoming management board discussions in the caribou management or, in this case what we’re hearing, limited harvest?
The intent of the various surveys, or the main intent, is to ascertain as close as possible what the herd numbers may be. At the same time as herd numbers, the herd health, cow-calf ratio, those types of things, all towards an eye of making sure we have sustainable herds that are healthy.
Those numbers have told us up until recently, for example, the Bathurst herd has suffered a precipitous decline and stabilized not up but down significantly. It hasn’t really increased from where it bottomed out about three years ago. We know the Ahiak-Beverly herd, the numbers look quite strong and the Bluenose-East as well.
The work is underway. We will be consulting with the various boards, all of which are public boards, as well in the east, with the Beverly and Qaminirjuaq, with the Government of Nunavut. As well as where there are no settled claims, we’ll be involving and consulting with the Yellowknives and Northwest Territories Metis.
I’m hearing some great things, but my question was, do resident hunters or do outfitters have a seat at the table in these so-called public settings. I believe there’s opportunity there in consultation. It will take months and potentially another year to get the proper responses from community consultations regarding resident and commercial harvest allocations.
Can the Minister indicate why temporary tag allocation is not on the table now, especially with all the promising herd numbers discussed in this House?
As Minister I have the authority to act on conservation issues, on emergency issues. Other than that, I am bound and obligated and intend and have to follow the work that’s done through the process involving the various boards, the work that they do that are public boards. They make recommendations and we’re involved in those with our staff as well, but the recommendations come back up through the system. It’s a system that has served us well. We need to make sure that we continue to use that system. We’re going to do that.
These discussions take time. These are very complex areas. They are multi-jurisdictional. Not only multi-jurisdictional within the Northwest Territories but in the case of the Beverly-Qamanirjuaq herd, it flows into, as well, Nunavut. We have a lot of jurisdictions to deal with and a process that we have to follow. We want to make sure we do that. They do very good work and they will do that again in this case, and we are looking by the fall of this coming year, 2013, to be able to sort out what changes will be made to the existing restrictions.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We just can assume or will assume that the Minister has had some meaningful consultations with a number of our caribou commercial outfitters here in the NWT. These outfitters have been waiting for years to get back to their livings and livelihood in the industry.
In his discussions, as we hope, has there been an indication as to the number of tags that these outfitters would require to get back into the game?
What the outfitters used prior to the hunting ban was in the neighbourhood of a total of 700 tags, many of which weren’t used annually.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
