Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have to represent my constituents as well, even though I am on the Executive Council. This is a very sensitive area for us in the Deh Cho. Travelling to the different assemblies this summer, especially down in Tulita where the Dene Nation gathered, I made a presentation and the elders spoke of the land and the water and what it means to them as aboriginal people, as Dene people. They view the land as their store house. The majority of the Dene people that I know, their primary source of food is on the land, hunting and fishing. They regard going to the store as a secondary way of feeding. They say "We are not white people. We do not go to the store to fed ourselves. We go out on the land."

Hunting is a very important aspect of their way of life, and if you are a hunter -- I do not know how many people here are hunters -- but if you are a hunter, you know what it means to go out on the land, respect the land and get food and put it on the table for your people. People in the North and the people in my region that I represent hold that very dear and regard it as a special right according to their treaty, to have these hunting, trapping and fishing rights that our ancestors have negotiated years ago.

Based on that, I think it is very important to make sure that there is proper consultation done in this whole regard. The government, through RWED, has undertaken a new review of the Wildlife Act and this is a part of the review of the Wildlife Act that there is a specific motion on. It would circumvent the process.

There is an aboriginal working group, I understand, that is working on this review of the Wildlife Act. They have grappled with this issue of the two-year residency. If this motion goes ahead, it would circumvent the process.

One of the points raised earlier is that there are land claim processes taking place right now, and going from what was negotiated in the Inuvialuit claims, the Gwich'in claims and the Sahtu claims, game and the management of game, hunting and residency were a big part of these claims.

With the Dogrib claim just on the verge of being finalized, it has components dealing with this issue. In the Deh Cho, where I come from, there is a process underway. The Akaitcho government, the South Slave Metis, everybody has claims on the go. This is one of the specific rights they would like to address. If this is going to be addressed to accommodate new people coming into our Territory, I think we are going to have to look at it very carefully. There are people who have been on this land since time immemorial and these are rights, and it is difficult here to give those rights away.

If you open it up, there will be so many hunters out there already in the fall. If you go into my region, you are going to add that much more to it and there is going to be a depletion of game. There will be less game for people who depend on it. If there is less game, they will put regulations in there for everybody, so they will be regulating the amount of game. If there is overhunting, that would affect many people in the future, as well if there is an overdepletion of game.

My point here is that there is a process in place already. Why not wait for this process to run its course? The honourable Member for Nunakput says that he was involved in this process 20 years ago and we are still grappling with it. We are going to continue to do it, but the point I want to raise is that there is a special right that the Dene people have, who have treaty in the North, that they regard as their special right. If we are going to make changes, they are going to have to be included in the consultation. Mahsi.