Thank you, Madam Chair. I wish to commend your department on their efforts to amend the Marine Mammals Act. I think this is very beneficial to all the harvesters and, also, I hope this government is just as successful in their efforts to amend the Migratory Birds Convention Act. Perhaps the Minister may wish to give this committee an update as to where negotiations are at this point with the other concerned parties with regard to the Migratory Birds Convention Act.

Madam Chair, I wish to thank the Minister on behalf of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation for the department's favourable response to the corporation's request under the western harvesters' assistance program. I would like to encourage the department to work closely with the people of

Sachs Harbour to help resolve the overpopulation of muskox. I know the department has been working with the communities. Perhaps the Minister would like to update the committee as to what the department's opinion is as to what can be done in this situation. Maybe I will ask for an update. Is there any potential to benefit from this overpopulation of muskox? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Mr. Kakfwi.

Madam Chair, with regard to the muskox harvesting, as the Member knows, there is an overabundance of muskox in relation to the caribou that traditionally wintered in the same areas. What I see as a few difficulties -- maybe more than a couple -- one is we don't have a marketing strategy for muskox meat. We don't have the subsequent sales that would follow an effective marketing strategy.

The other difficulty we have, supposedly, is the distance and remoteness of Sachs Harbour; bringing that meat down to Edmonton, Montreal, et cetera, where we expect to develop a market for the meat. The suggestion is it is a long distance and expensive. It may be economical. We also know we have legs of lamb here from Australia. So I am not sure if the distance is insurmountable.

Having said that, the other problem I see is the one to do with the regulations where federal laws govern how you could take live animals and then reduce them into packages of meat for commercial resale, and the steps and laws that we have to follow in dealing with those.

We also don't have a clear idea of how, in partnership with the Inuvialuit, we could deal with the overpopulation of the muskox and how to address the problem of a wipe-out of the caribou population that used to be there. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Could the Minister give us an update on negotiations, or if he is involved at all in negotiations, with the Migratory Birds Convention Act?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

As far as the Migratory Birds Convention Act, I understand we are now at a stage where, within Canada, there is agreement on the amendments. What we don't have yet is the agreement with the United States on those proposed amendments. Mexico is the other party involved with that.

These discussions hopefully should resolve this fairly soon. In the meantime, we are carrying on as if these amendments had been agreed to. So there is no enforcement of the present amendments that govern whether or not aboriginal people can harvest migratory birds in the spring. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I find that very encouraging and I am encouraged by the department's efforts to allow for spring harvesting. Perhaps this Assembly could do just as well by possibly closing the House in the middle of May in the future. Thank you.

Thank you. That was a comment and not a question. Mr. Evaloarjuk.

Thank you. Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We aren't of the view that the seagull population is a problem or a concern. There is concern, not only in our jurisdiction but in other jurisdictions across Canada; the geese population is a growing concern. Their habitat and their supply of food is starting to be unable to sustain the growing population. So there is now a move to set up some sort of a national body to look at the problem that all provinces and territories are facing with regard to what to do with the large number of geese that come north, in our case. Perhaps they will run out of food and be unable to sustain themselves in the spring, summer and fall when they return to the North. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Barnabas.

Thank you. Mr. Kakfwi.

Madam Chair, when the federal government sets up parks, I understand they carry on some consultation with users of the area with respect to governments under which jurisdiction the park is going to be set up. There is some discussion about the impact of establishing parks on the different sectors; the mining sector, for instance. There are environmental and ecological concerns.

When proposed developments happen, because it is on Crown land, it is a federal review process. The process is set up by the claims that will come into effect. The Government of the Northwest Territories, as such, has no jurisdiction on federal lands or on inland waters. So most of the processes and regulatory regimes that will come into effect as a result of proposed developments like this are federal. The critical players in this very often are Members of Parliament; in the Member's case, Mr. Jack Anawak. It would be good for us to make contact with Mr. Jack Anawak to discuss with him his views on these two proposed developments; the suggestion of a national park and the suggestion of another mining project being proposed and see how he sees addressing the different issues as a result of these initiatives and how, as a government, we can help Members like Mr. Levi Barnabas deal with the concerns that he has as an elected Member of this Legislature and how we can help his community deal with the concerns. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any further general comments? Mr. Roland.

Thank you. Did you have any comments to that, Mr. Minister?

Yes, thank you. The department will be, through the consolidation exercise, working with the Department of Economic Development and Tourism to see how the strategies that renewable resources has are working, for instance, in promoting more efficient and better use of the different resources we have in the North; seals, fur, wild meat, fish, fisheries, sport hunting, timber harvesting, et cetera. For each of these things, we have strategies on how we can make better use of them. We will be working with Economic Development and Tourism even more closely on how to create markets and increase sales of

these products that we are working on, and also looking at the job creation aspect of the strategy. So we think that consolidation will help us, sharpening our focus and perhaps accelerating the work to ensure that we get some results that we need in these different sectors. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Any further general comments?

--- Interjection

Does the committee agree that we will proceed with the detail?