Thank you, Madam Speaker. The responsibility of the territorial government, to this point, has been observer status, where we receive information from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans about the incident that occurred on the river. It is the responsibility of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to find out the causes for the dead fish that were found on the Mackenzie River. As far as I understand, Renewable Resources has observer status and if there is some way that we can assist, then that is about all we can do at this point.

It is the responsibility of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to find out the causes for the dead fish and then to try to resolve the problem. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. Final supplementary, Mr. Gargan.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I don't know what happened during the middle of July when these dead fish were in the water, but I didn't say much about it because I was still travelling between communities. Other communities must have seen what was happening in the river at that time. In my travels, I usually take water out of creeks as opposed to the Mackenzie River, in the event that there is something in the water that isn't supposed to be there. My final supplementary is, during the time the fish was being found in the water, what was the reporting relationship that occurred? At one time, I had a 100-page report on a small spill that happened in Providence. Has the department had any kind of dialogue with the federal department to find out what was in the water that was causing these fish to die? It wasn't happening in any other lakes where there were fish.

Minister of Renewable Resources, Mr. Arngna'naaq.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. To my knowledge, there were communities that were reporting dead fish in their communities. However, they reported the fish to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, who are rightly responsible for finding out what happened to the fish. The dialogue the department would have with Fisheries and Oceans is that our officers would be reporting these occurrences to them. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Lewis.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It has been brought to my attention, Madam Speaker, that over the past year there has been a decline in Barrenland Grizzly Bears. The mining industry is being blamed for bumping off a lot of these animals, to such an extent that one of the officials in the Department of Renewable Resources, Mr. Andy McMullan, gave an interview last September on CBC denying this. He claimed only one of these animals had been killed in defence by someone who is connected with the mining industry. Will the Minister confirm that there has been a decline in the number of Barrenland Grizzly Bears? That is the information that we are getting from people who are spending their time on the barrenlands.

Thank you. Minister of Renewable Resources, Mr. Arngna'naaq.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. To my understanding, the Barrenland Grizzly Bear is an animal which the department has been observing, but the population of the Barrenland Grizzly Bears has been something that the biologists were not able to confirm. At this point, to the best of our knowledge, I believe they have realized that there is a lower number of grizzly bears and the Department of Renewable Resources, over the summer, put in a camp where a bunch of the mining activity is taking place at this point, and are trying to find out exactly what did take place. At this point, we don't really know whether there was a natural decline of grizzly bears, but it is something that the department is trying to find out. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Lewis.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. It's very difficult to determine whether there's been an increase or a decrease unless you've studied something over a period of time. So I would like to ask the Minister then, is this issue of the state of that population of grizzly bears being studied as a project within his department?

Minister of Renewable Resources, Mr. Arngna'naaq.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Right now, we are doing a number of studies, especially in the areas where mining activities are taking place. But, specifically to study Barrenland Grizzly Bears is not a project that the department is doing at this point. They are doing studies on grizzly bears in conjunction with other animals that live or survive in the areas where the mining activities are taking place. But, specifically to study grizzly bears is something that the department does on an ongoing basis, but to my knowledge there is no definite information that we have on grizzly bears and the population. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Lewis.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Many years ago, I lived very briefly in British Columbia before I came north. I read about the tremendous amount of trade that went on between Chinese people who came up after the California gold rush, settled in the middle part of British Columbia and bought a tremendous number of products from a group of people called the "Carrier people." An aboriginal tribe called the Carrier people who are very similar in language and custom to the Slavey people. One of the products was the gallbladders of bears. I'm pretty sure that that kind of commerce doesn't happen on our barrenlands, but I would like to ask the Minister, is there any evidence at all that of the 30-odd bears that were killed last year -- some of them by hunters, some of them by outfitters -- whether, in fact, there was any evidence that gallbladders -- because in these big bears they're pretty big gallbladders -- are being taken out for trade purposes.

Thank you. Minister of Renewable Resources, Mr. Arngna'naaq.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. To my knowledge, the bears that were caught within the Northwest Territories were caught legally; any bears that may have been caught in any lands within our jurisdiction were caught for the purposes of their pelt. We are not aware of any killings of bears specifically for the purposes of acquiring the gallbladders. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife North, Mr. Ballantyne.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Justice, Madam Speaker. Recently, the federal Minister of Justice was here, and the issue of the recent Supreme Court decision using drunkenness as a defence was brought up by me. At that time, the legal experts across the country said it was so narrowly defined to not worry about it. But I read, with some dismay recently, in the last two or three days, in Alberta, it was actually used to acquit an individual who was accused of assaulting his wife.

My question to the Minister of Justice is, it seems to me the Canadian justice system is hurting its own credibility and sending out harmful, mixed messages to the public, and it's setting us all back as we're trying to deal with serious concerns with alcohol abuse and violence. Would the Minister be prepared to communicate with the federal Minister, our concern about the new case and to urge him to move quickly to bring in whatever legislative changes are needed to plug this serious loophole in the Canadian justice system? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. Minister of Justice, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Minister of Transportation, Mr. Todd.