Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member's statement, I have a few questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. As I mentioned, we have an issue with grizzly bears in the community of Aklavik, upwards of 14. I would like to ask the Minister: can the Minister update the House on what steps are being taken by ENR officers to deal with the grizzly bear problem? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I share the Member's concern with the number of grizzly bears that are in the community of Aklavik. We continue, obviously, to respond to bear reports. My understanding is that we have destroyed three grizzly bears in Aklavik due to public safety concerns. Our local renewable resource officer is on-call, and an additional renewable resource officer will be travelling to Aklavik to assist with monitoring the bear situation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am glad that the department is taking some action. Has relocation been looked at, and what would be the cost to relocate one or two grizzly bears or more?
I know that, from questions from the Member in the past week, he asked about the relocation. I had committed to getting costs. I have not seen those costs yet, but I would imagine that it would be fairly expensive. Again, we need to have a look at it and explore all options in trying to alleviate the grizzly bear problem in Aklavik.
I know that it has only been a week, but have discussions started with co-management partners on increasing grizzly bear hunting tags for bears?
We will have to have those discussions with our co-management partners, because, as we know, a number of years ago, they implemented the grizzly bear tags because there was a lot of hunting of grizzly bears, but it seems like it has done what it is supposed to do and brought the population back up. We will have to have those discussions with our co-management partners to see if they would be receptive to maybe increasing the amount of tags. We will have those discussions and see where that takes us.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, we have a huge problem, especially after dark. Yesterday we had three bears coming into the community. Will the Minister make sure that the department have officers on patrol in the evenings while they are in the community, just to make sure that there is safety? Safety is always number one for the community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I agree with the Member that protection of our citizens should be the number one priority of this government, and as such, as I said before, we do have another renewable resource officer who is going to the community, and I am sure that they will be doing some patrols to ensure that the bears are not becoming a problem and coming into the community. I think we've seen a number of cases of bears in the community, in some of the communities around the Northwest Territories. Our staff are being vigilant and, if we have to, we will bring in extra people to help with that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
