Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Obviously we do have these eight herds that occupy a very large geographic area. There is some intermingling. We do our best to count and assess the strength of the herd and do our counts at the calving grounds, as the Member has acknowledged. While those grounds may shift, they are generally in the same area. The Bathurst herd I believe is named because they calve in the area of Bathurst Inlet. So we're doing our best to understand herd dynamics. We have some of what I believe are the foremost experts in this field in the world working for RWED. We do collaring, we rely on traditional knowledge. The names of the herds and the differentiation has changed over time, as we've identified genetic differences, we believe.
But having said that, I don't think the management plan needs to be shelved. I don't think it is suggesting that the herd is in a state of crisis. I think what it is suggesting is that there's a fluctuation in the herd numbers that we need to better understand. If it was 300,000 in the past, we believe, and it's 186,000 or some odd caribou now, I think
we need to know if that's a normal or routine fluctuation in the herd strength over time or if this is the result of something else; potentially development or over hunting. All these things at this point we have not established and we would not purport to establish or impose restrictions on hunting without sitting down and talking to all of the users of the resources. I think that's the comfort I can give the Member that includes outfitters.
So step one, if we establish that because of the calving ground counts the herd is in serious decline or very low and we have to implement a management regime. Step two is to sit down with the users of the resource and the stakeholders. If we were proposing some sort of limitation on outfitters in a certain area, I'm sure they would question us about how we could prove or in fact suggest that it would make a difference, those restrictions, and would ask about our ability to differentiate between the various herds. At that point we'd have a discussion around these issues. I think much of this is in theory, at this point.
The management plan is out there. There are some suggestions potentially if we can determine that the herd is low or in decline. These are the kinds of things we need to talk about. So we're moving forward with this plan. It is a plan that was presented to government; it's not government's plan. I'd like the Members to keep that in mind. But there was involvement from a broad range of stakeholders who have responsibility for herd management, but not all the users of the resources; that would be the next step. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.