Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for Minister Miltenberger of Environment and Natural Resources. I just gave a Member’s statement speaking about a horror of a world without caribou. The sliding caribou populations are scary and worrying. Rather than slowing down, unfortunately, it’s actually accelerating, echoing the loss of wildlife worldwide.
I’d like to start by asking the Minister what actions has he taken to reverse this trend, since the most recent counts pointed out the grave dangers posed to both the Bathurst and Bluenose-East herds. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First let me say that I appreciate the Member’s statement and we share the concern of the Member. We have had to call back, or we called together all of the Aboriginal governments, scientific staff and our folks. We’ve had one meeting with the political leadership a few weeks back to look at the results from the Bathurst herd survey, which indicates the herd has continued to decline now into the range of 15,000 animals, down from a high in the mid ‘80s, 1986, from about 460,000 animals. As well, we look at the numbers of the Bluenose-East, which had declined in the area of 30,000 animals and we believe still dropping from about 160,000. So we’ve brought the political leadership together to convene in basically an emergency gathering to look at these dramatic, stark numbers.
Subsequent to that, we brought together all the technical people about a week ago to sit down and look at the information, go over the numbers and talk about options. There’s another meeting next week, and then in early November the political leadership will gather with the intent of making appropriate and necessary decisions about what we need to do to help protect and save the caribou, both the Bathurst herd and the Bluenose-East.
Currently, there is a tag limit of 300 animals in the Bathurst. In the Bluenose-East there’s a voluntary limit of about 2,800 animals, which was singularly unsuccessful in terms of curbing a harvesting past that. So we’re going to be looking at some very hard choices here in the next couple of weeks. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. The Minister has indicated the severity of the drop of caribou and the obvious possibility of the loss of these herds. Yet he’s also said it’s still open, go out and shoot, you can shoot 300 here and 150 there and however many you want with the Bluenose-East. That’s pretty unbelievable. I read in the paper, community hunts, they’re out there trying to find these caribou and the only reason they’re not shooting is because they can’t find them. There is a major gap here. Obviously, we must support these populations to enable recovery, and it seems the one thing we can control is hunting.
Is the Minister prepared to ban the hunting of caribou in these devastated herds? At least stop killing and get together and make these decisions.
Thank you. Once again, I appreciate the Member’s concern, and I can assure the Member that the intent here is by the very first part of November before the winter hunt really takes effect that we will have decisions made that will protect the caribou. There is a process for us to follow. This is a very complex area. We have the Yellowknives, we have the Northwest Territories Metis, we have Akaitcho, we have Tlicho, we have the Sahtu, we have the Inuvialuit as well as the territorial government and interest in the Northwest Territories Metis plus all the other southern and the Deh Cho, all that have an interest and have been harvesting this herd for many years.
So we have a need to follow a timely, compressed process, which we’re doing. I can assure the Member that by the early part of November there will be the necessary decisions made to protect the herds, both the Bathurst and the Bluenose-East. It’s clear with the Bathurst, with a tag limit of 300, that there’s not many options left when it comes to harvesting.
We also have to deal with the fact that the Bathurst herd also extends up into Nunavut and the Nunavut government still allows commercial harvest, outfitters, which to us is unacceptable. We’ve been in correspondence and communication with them to make the necessary changes, to work with us and all the other Aboriginal governments and co-management boards to protect the herd. That’s one of the other things we have to look at. We’re going to look at predator control, we’re going to look at a whole host of things, but clearly, hunting is one area where there is the single largest impact. Thank you.
Thank you. It seems that every question I ask these days, the answer is: It’s a complex situation; we’ve got great intentions. If that was true, we wouldn’t have the services deficits that we have, we wouldn’t be in the fiscal situation we are, we wouldn’t have the wildlife deficits that we have. Community hunts are still being contemplated as we speak and reported in the paper. Plans are being made for winter kills as soon as the ice is safe.
Given the drastic declines, what action has been taken to alert people of the horrible consequences of such activity?
There’s been extensive contact and involvement of the media in this issue. I’ve just laid out a very comprehensive plan that we’ve taken to involve all the communities and Aboriginal governments and the public government to sit down in a very timely, compressed way to make decisions and to come up with options for the leadership that’s going to gather early in November. There will be decisions made early in November that will allow us to make the necessary decisions to protect the herds, the Bathurst and the Bluenose.
I would point out that the Member is very, very big on process and consultation, endless consultation sometimes, and now he wants me to just stand up and rule by fiat and dictate and decree. The necessary decisions will be made and they will be made in basically a couple of weeks actually. We’ll have those decisions made.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s the other feedback I get all the time, is the best offence is a defence, or the best defence is an offence. That’s the Minister’s strategy now.
I’m not worried about being politically correct here. I’m worried about the caribou and the consequences of their disappearance to generations of First Nations and other resident families to whom the caribou are critically important.
The Minister and co-management boards have had several years to effect conservation. Instead, the caribou are going down the tubes. The Minister has the authority. We have invested the Minister with the authority. The nation has invested the Minister with the authority.
I understand stakeholders are meeting in November, as the Minister has mentioned. Obviously, all stakeholders should be at the table, all stakeholders.
Who has the Minister invited to participate in talks about emergency recovery actions to ensure that all perspectives are there and considered? Yes, let’s consult properly if we’re going to do that. Mahsi.
I am very aware of my authorities as Environment Minister, and I have in fact used them in the not-too-distant past. The steps are being taken to deal with this issue. All the people of the Northwest Territories, all the governments of the Northwest Territories share a concern about the caribou and the need to make hard decisions, and it’s time not to worry about anything else but who speaks for the caribou or who speaks for the continuation of the herds. That’s going to be the people in this room; it’s going to be the Aboriginal governments and the leaders when we gather to make those hard decisions.
Again, I want to assure the Member and this House and the people of the Northwest Territories, those decisions will be made. No matter how tough they are, they’re nothing we’ve never dealt with before. The issue of bans has been talked about before, herd limits. We will make those necessary decisions.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
