Tony Whitford Yellowknife South

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I would like to direct a question to the Minister responsible for the Department of Transportation. I have in front of me an ad for a transportation planner that has been advertised in the Toronto Globe and Mail. As we all know, the Toronto Globe and Mail is a fairly broadly distributed newspaper. It is very expensive to advertise in it, something like $1,500 for an ad that we can get here in the Northwest Territories for something like $250.

The point of this whole thing, Madam Speaker, is why are we advertising in southern newspapers when we should be advertising in the north? I thought we had a buy north and hire north policy. What is the policy of the department when it comes to advertising, not senior positions, but positions like this in southern newspapers?

Stephen Kakfwi Sahtu

Madam Speaker, the visit that we're planning to have in the next few weeks would be to make contact with the various governments of the European countries. For myself to meet with the Ministers of Environment in each respective country to convey to them the seriousness of the situation as we see it, regarding the implications of their regulations and the economic European community regarding import of wild furs after December 1994. To ask them specifically to intervene on our behalf, to recognize that people cannot forget that Canada has an abundance of wildlife, but also aboriginal people who are dependent and living in coexistence with that wildlife. European people should be equally if not more concerned about the survival of aboriginal people and not just the foxes, bears and seals that run around this country. Thank you.

Stephen Kakfwi Sahtu

Madam Speaker, the message to these governments will be that the Europeans may not think they are the only people in the world who are concerned about wildlife. We are concerned about our wildlife as well, and we will give them some examples of some of the work we do which is recognized internationally for the manner in which we will conduct ourselves in the management and the preservation of wildlife. And that they have a few things to learn from us, judging from the situation they have in Europe. There are some things we can work on together. There are some requirements for Europeans to recognize that beating up and wiping out the lifestyle of aboriginal people is about the worst thing they could do in their over-zealousness to protect wildlife. The best protection that wildlife has in the world are the aboriginal people who have lived, survived and depended on them for the thousands of years that we've existed. Thank you.