Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as you heard in my Member's statement today, I had the pleasure of having the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources and of Finance and the deputy minister, Dr. Dragon, Superintendent Lafferty, and Officer Sabourin do a Nahendeh riding tour. It was really good, and the people really enjoyed it, so my questions to the Minister of ENR are about this trip. During the trip, we heard concerns regarding the rules and regulations as it pertains to hunting on the road corridor. There seemed to be some confusion about what was allowed and not allowed. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm that the department will be looking into these concerns and addressing them in the near future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I want to thank the constituents of Nahendeh for their great hospitality during our travels there, and I am glad that we had an opportunity to drive through Nahendeh. I am assuming after that drive I am not going to hear much about Highway No. 7 from the Member for Nahendeh. That is beautiful road.
To the Member's question, though, we had heard that concern and, under section 70 of the Wildlife Act, there are no specific rules currently in place for harvesting alongside the road. For public safety reasons, you cannot fire any weapon, firearm, bow and arrow, or crossbow alongside the highway, and in addition, too, the Wildlife Act says that you cannot harvest wildlife without due regard for safety and property of other persons.
Mr. Speaker, we did hear about that, and it is unfortunate that this is happening along the highways. I do not know if we have to legislate common sense, because sometimes it is all it does take. I do not believe we will be looking into it any further, and if anyone knows people out there who are hunting along the highway, shooting alongside the highway, they should report it to their local offices, and then we will deal with the matter.
I thank the Minister for that great answer. However, he drove on the road in the wintertime, and as he talked to the former MLA, he said, "Come drive it in the summertime," so we will get the Minister of Infrastructure to come with you and we will see how it is. However, it is good, and I have to say the workers are doing a great job maintaining it. Previously in the House I spoke about the possibility of the department working with Aboriginal leadership to come up with a plan to stop the hunting of cow moose for at least the next five years to help improve the moose population. Mr. Speaker, I understand the department is doing the second part of the moose survey, but during the trip we heard that this is something that we need to be looking at. Can the Minister confirm if this idea is on the department's radar, and if so, when will he be starting the consultation process?
Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct. We did hear about it on the trip, and we have done a couple of surveys. I think we did one in October, and as I said on our trip there, we are going to do another one in February. Once that work is done, we will analyze the information that we received, and then I think I made a commitment during that trip to share that information with some of the governments that we met there. I believe they are having an assembly or a meeting of some of the governments around the Deh Cho. I think they are having some kind of wildlife meeting, and I had made a commitment to share that information with them at that time, so once the information is gathered and analyzed we will be more than happy to share it with the Aboriginal governments in the Nahendeh.
I thank the Minister for that answer. It is actually refreshing to hear that, and I would like to thank the Minister and the department for making that commitment. Another issue we heard about was the growing wolf population. It seems that one of the factors in seeing the reduction of the moose population is because of the wolves. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm if the department has done any studies on the wolves within the last five years and if they are concerned with the population growth of the wolves?
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has been documenting observation of wolves during its wildlife survey and field work in a number of different species in the Deh Cho region over the years, and we conducted a targeted wolf survey near Fort Liard in January of 2016. During these surveys, the wolf population densities that were observed were relatively low, particularly compared to wolf surveys in other areas. We also monitor the number of wolf pelts that are brought in through the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program, and regionally ENR staff are always available to discuss any concerns and observations that Members may have.
The meeting I spoke of before was the 8th Biannual Deh Cho Regional Wildlife Workshop. That meeting is going to be held in October of this year, I believe, and we have made a commitment to have our people there and share a lot of the information that we have gathered with the participants.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I would like to thank the department's regional staff. They do a great job of communicating and working with the communities. Like most trips, Mr. Speaker, you have things that happen to you personally, and you get to learn from these experiences. This trip was no different. I would like to share learning opportunities, but I would like to ask the Minister: what did he learn from this travelling in the Deh Cho during it and gassing up his own vehicle? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I think the first lesson I learned on this trip was not to rely on others to tell you that you are full of gas and to check your gas levels yourself, and thanks to the excellent condition of those roads in Nahendeh, we were able to make it into Jean Marie on an empty tank. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
