Mr. Chairman, going from memory, there were over 100 bison there originally. There were some losses along the way. I know that we had a bull down there one time that went crazy and had to be put down. It destroyed some other animals. There's been some other animals harvested and I believe, at the present time, it's around 100 animals down there, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Conservation education and resource development, special warrant, $3.450

million. Mr. Koe.

The $3 million to the TFN for the Nunavut wildlife harvester income support program is part of the land claims agreement. I'm just wondering why this amount wasn't budgeted for previously, knowing that the land claims agreement was signed and sealed? I wonder why this wasn't in the budget before?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, there needs to be certain conditions met by TFN with regard to this support program and those conditions weren't met at the time we put the budget together. Mr. Chairman, when those conditions

were eventually met, we made the payment. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Mr. Koe.

Is the $90,000 and one PY an ongoing position for the traditional knowledge policy? After we approve a PY, it tends to stay around forever. The traditional knowledge study was done a few years ago and a response was finally made by this government which, I believe, did not have a totally favourable response from the people that worked on it. I'm just wondering what the status is of the PY and the money? Once we approve it here, would it be an ongoing PY and if it is, why?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, the funding was to finalize, for Cabinet consideration and tabling in the Legislative Assembly, the GNWT response to the report of the traditional knowledge working group and items of that nature. I don't believe that this is a permanent PY, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Koe.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, approving this particular expenditure does not approve this PY forever. It would have to come back into the O & M budget again. So this is merely approving this PY and this particular amount of dollars on a one-time basis, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Mr. Koe.

If the study is done and the government's response to the study is done, what is the need for an ongoing PY? I believe there is only a need for perhaps a .5 or three quarters of a PY. Is the intent to have this individual on for the full year?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, I believe that there are three aspects of this traditional knowledge area that have not yet been addressed.

The first one is the initiative to implement a comprehensive educational and promotional campaign to the general public. As part of the campaign, they want to implement a series of annual awards recognizing the contribution to northern society of holders of traditional knowledge and to reprofile the existing grants and contribution programs to make traditional knowledge initiatives a priority. I think that is due to be finished by March 31, 1994, I believe, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Conservation education and resource development. Mr. Whitford.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, if my memory serves me, there is an anthrax emergency response plan. That was updated on June 20 of this year. Unfortunately, on August 3, the anthrax emergency response plan had to be put into effect. When we checked with the experts in the field, Mr. Chairman, they advised us that conditions were right, humidity-wise, temperature-wise, and the disease sprang up. When we asked them where the disease came from, they told us that the spores may have been in the ground for 100 years. When asked if there was any anticipation that it might happen again, there was a strong indication that there will be another anthrax outbreak in the Mackenzie sanctuary. In trying to get ahead of this and do what Mr. Whitford is talking about, Mr. Chairman, we propose to spend $85,000 of this particular funding to vaccinate bulls in the sanctuary in February and March. It will be done by using self-dissolving darts and they will be fired from helicopters. They are telling us that they are using them on the bulls because they are the most vulnerable to this particular disease.

There has also been some work done with the people around Fort Providence. There are volunteers being trained to spot the anthrax in wood bison. For the record, Mr. Chairman, there were 170 bison killed. There were also three moose and three bears in the area, north and east of Fort Providence, that lost their lives to the anthrax outbreak. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Mr. Whitford.

Thank you, Mr. Minister.