Madam Speaker, as I understand it, the bears that are tagged are marked with some sort of indication that they've been tagged recently. There is a way to tell if they have been tagged very recently or if they've been tagged a few weeks ago, by the way they are designated. It is my understanding that part of the difficulty of carrying out this type of work is that, in order to determine how long the tranquillizer stays in the blood and in the flesh of the bear, on first tranquillizing it you have to do it again shortly after.
It is stressful for the animals and some of the communities have discouraged the tagging of bears twice in such a short duration. What we've said is that the samples that we've got are being analyzed right now to determine how long the tranquillizers stay in the meat, fat and organs of the polar bear. This information will be available in May. Until then, until Health and Welfare comes out with its own statement on this, we've asked that people refrain from shooting bears that have been tagged and from eating the flesh of bears that have been tagged. I'm not certain if in Resolute people eat polar bear meat on a regular basis, but surely there's some way to work out some arrangement to ensure that the research is reported and it doesn't hinder the lifestyle of the people who do eat polar bear meat. Thank you.