Madam Speaker, the Dall sheep have been one species in the Northwest Territories that have limited harvesting from aboriginal people. It is currently down from what used to be harvested, traditionally, when there were more Dene people frequenting the mountains. However, we find in recent years that sport hunting has taken on a high interest so there is a quota set up for the harvesting of Dall sheep. I think they average about 200 per year. These are almost all sheep that are considered mature, that is with full curl to their horns which is what trophy hunters look for. Based on our previous surveys of these Dall sheep populations, we think we are well within the percentage of the allowable harvest quota, more often well below it so we think we're doing all right.

In response to some of the concerns expressed by people in the Deh Cho region we are looking at the issue again to make sure the surveys we have and have based our allowable harvest on are accurate. We're accessing whether we should do other surveys. The Member should know that the surveys, as far as I understand, are very, very expensive because where the sheep go most people can't. It's usually on the side of mountains, very inaccessible and very difficult to cover because they cover huge ranges of areas that are considered almost inaccessible. You can go on foot, perhaps, but then you can't keep up with them. So it's helicopters and aerial surveys that are done in the remote areas where it's difficult to fly in and not always easy to get out of.

Again, we are concerned, of course, with maintaining a healthy population of Dall sheep. They are, again, a species that is sought after by international sport hunters. It does bring in some money to the Northwest Territories in that regard. We also know that many aboriginal people still depend on it for harvesting in the summertime. So we take great concern with it. We're accessing whether we need to do additional surveys at this time. Thank you.