Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to address my questions to the Minister of Environment today. The Yellowknives Dene First Nation has had an understanding that ENR had offered support for a community caribou hunt. Yet, despite numerous requests, there has been no response up to this time. It’s getting close to the end of the season here.
Will the Minister honour the commitment made to support the community hunt for the Yellowknives Dene and Detah?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of ENR, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been ongoing discussions. That offer has been on the table. Within the banned zone for the Bathurst, we’ve allocated 150 tags and there is a continued offer to assist the community with the hunt outside the banned area. Thank you.
Thank you. Everything sounds copacetic, but that’s not the message I’m getting. I’m wondering if the Minister would get on the phone as soon as we’re done here.
The Yellowknives Dene First Nation has been cooperating with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources on recording the number of caribou they have harvested. Since 2010 the basis of this partnership has been an interim harvest agreement initially for two years and then extended for a year. Has the department signed an extension to this agreement for this year and, if not, why not? Mahsi.
Officials from ENR and my office upstairs are tracking the discussion here and they will be following up, as the Member has suggested. There have been a considerable number of meetings between the officials in ENR and the Yellowknives and they have been unable to come to a satisfactory agreement.
In the meantime, ENR has set up the processes to hand out tags and authorizations so that, in fact, the Yellowknives can take advantage of the opportunity to harvest 150 animals in the banned hunting area. As well, we’ve talked about a broader arrangement. We’ve just had a big Bathurst Management Herd Advisory Board meeting here in Yellowknife last week. So the intent is to come up with a way to do this, just keeping in mind that this is fundamentally still a conservation of wildlife protection issue and we are very interested in trying to resolve that with the Yellowknives. Thank you.
I am very sad that the Minister has not come to an agreement and, in fact, would move independently, given that this is a government-to-government relationship we’re speaking of.
The Yellowknives Dene First Nation recognizes that Bathurst caribou need extra careful management and has cooperated with the department in this respect for several years. The leadership of the Yellowknives has not agreed to a tag system this year, yet the department is unilaterally issuing 2014 tags with the chief’s signature on them.
Why is the department disrespecting the leadership of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation in such a blatant manner? Mahsi.
Thank you. I’m aware of the assertion of ENR handing out tags with the chief’s signature. I have not received that confirmation from ENR. The whole intent was, of course, to respond to the very many requests we’ve had from the Yellowknife members to be able to go out and hunt in the restricted area and we’ve done that, keeping everybody fully apprised of that interim step. Our preferred approach of course is, as the Member stated, we’d like to have an arrangement with the Yellowknives, same as we have with the Wek’eezhii, and hopefully have them fully involved in the development of a Bathurst Caribou Management Plan. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you. All I can say is, huh? The Minister just said that in fact he was issuing tags and now he says he’s going to check with his people to see if they’re issuing tags. The Yellowknives Dene have offered a reasonable alternative to the tag system. They’ve offered to hunt up to 150 caribou and report back when that limit has been reached.
Why has the Minister rendered Bathurst caribou even more vulnerable by not accepting this entirely reasonable alternative to the tag system, or at least work with this Aboriginal government to come to a mutually agreed upon plan of action as this government always professes to do?
Let me be clear. We have and are handing out and have handed out, I understand, 150 tags, authorizations to Yellowknives to hunt. What I was talking about was the assertion by the Member that we were doing it somehow with the chief’s signature on the authorization. That particular fact I haven’t had confirmed from ENR.
We want to work out an arrangement with the Yellowknives that involves ENR, that involves monitoring, that involves a coordinated, cooperative effort to oversee this process as opposed to just having carte blanche and we’ll check back with you and trust us we’ll take care of it.. We want to have something like we have with the Wek’eezhii Board and which we have in other regions, as well, which is a much more coordinated, integrated, cooperative approach.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to go back on orders of the day; item 5, I believe it is.
---Unanimous consent granted
