Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in regard to this department, one of the problem areas that I have noted going through is the number of vacancies within this department. I believe we counted somewhere in the area of, I believe it was 48.
One of the concerns I have because of that is with the number of vacancies, the amount of people we have left within the department, especially when it comes to developing or collecting data. For myself, I was trying to get data and information on caribou in the Northwest Territories, in regard to the different caribou herds and species. There was very little information collected, especially from aboriginal groups. The only group that had statistics was the Inuvialuit and people from the Eastern Arctic that have done studies on the different Inuit people when they collected data on caribou.
But yet, in the western Territory, there is very little data collected in regard to use of the herd and also the consumption of the species and yet, we are looking at being involved in large scale developments; diamond mines, and now we are looking into the oil and gas.
I think that if this government is going to take a role in the process of the environmental assessment screening process, when the regulatory decisions are made on exactly which route is going to be taken and also what rivers are going to be crossed or the effects that it may have on the environment, we have to have the data to make sound decisions.
I think, as a government, we have taken over the responsibility of wildlife and forestry from the federal government, but yet when it comes to having that information and research available, it is very lacking.
So I think it is critical that, with the number of vacancies we have within the government and not having the bodies there to do a lot of this work, that we are falling behind. I think it is essential that the department makes an attempt to fill these vacancies but also ensure that we have the data, the information that is going to be needed.
We are going through a review of the Wildlife Act sometime within the next year or so. There again there has to be data put forth in regard to usage of the species by the different groups, the question about rights that flow from land claim agreements and also the question about treaty rights.
So this is essential for myself. Reviewing the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development that is one area where I feel we have to do more and make an attempt to ensure we have the people in place to do this research and also make sure we have it compiled quickly so that we have it available for ourselves, so when we do make presentations on behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories, we have that information available. Thank you.