Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There is great concern recently, Mr. Speaker, with reported declines of caribou populations across the NWT and the Arctic. There are a couple of statistics here: the Bluenose West herd has dropped some 80 percent in size in the last 20 years. Mr. Speaker, the Bluenose East herd has dropped 40 percent in the last five years, and the Bathurst herd, one of the largest in the North, was reported to number

470,000 animals 20 years ago, but we are looking at a survey that was done in 2003. Their numbers are now 186,000, a 60 percent drop.

Mr. Speaker, last year, the Minister of Renewable Resources announced a major survey to try to account for these numbers. We are finding out that we are losing caribou at an ever-increasing and accelerating rate. In the management of this remarkable resource, Mr. Speaker, we have many different constituencies to satisfy: Dene and Metis communities and families who have relied on caribou for centuries and whose right to do so is well established in land claim agreements; Mr. Speaker, we have outfitters; we have a large population of resident harvesters who have also come to rely on caribou to supplement food on their dinner tables. But, Mr. Speaker, we have considerable gaps in our knowledge. The methodologies we have employed for the surveys, the impact of trophy hunting on breeding stocks, the cumulative impacts, Mr. Speaker, of almost 15 years now, of direct access into the heart of the Bathurst herd's wintering grounds through the resupply road to the diamond mines. There is a major gap, Mr. Speaker, in reporting harvests from aboriginal harvesters, whereas other levels are tightly monitored.

Mr. Speaker, the concern is that while we debate, compare, survey, study and discuss how to do this, are we destined to repeat those terrible legacies of other natural resources in Canada, the legendary bison herds that roamed the prairies, the codfish stocks of Newfoundland? This is not something that we should tolerate at all. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause