Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member's statement today is about Caribou Forever. The report tells us that 40 to 86 percent of the caribou have disappeared over the past five years. Are the caribou restrictions addressing the real problem? Or, Mr. Speaker, do we just react rashly to an emergency situation that should have never started? Resident hunters are being singled out, Mr. Speaker. With the lack of numbers on how many caribou are really being taken, are we really solving the problem? We don't have solid numbers on the wolf population. We don't know for sure what the real reason is why the caribou are disappearing, or is it really just a cyclical cycle that we have come into a low phase with the caribou numbers?
If the GNWT had been monitoring this problem all along, we might not be in this reacting position we are in today. We have invested millions of dollars into the commercial harvesting industry, Mr. Speaker, but now it is in jeopardy because we have to pull it right back in a fast reaction.
A number of hunters that I am aware of are outdoorsmen who like to get their five tags, but, Mr. Speaker, many of them say that they only take about two caribou anyway. So the problem I see is we have numbers in the sense of we know we are selling five tags, but we don't know how many we are really allowing to be shot.
I would like to suggest maybe a creative incentive, Mr. Speaker, in a better way of handling this by getting the hunters to return unused tags. I have a constituent who told me the other day that he has a little ring of caribou tags of about 50 of them that have accumulated well over a decade, Mr. Speaker. That a family has gone out, purchased the tags and there is proof in the pudding, Mr. Speaker, that the residents aren't necessarily shooting them all, so we don't know what the facts are.
In the situation that I see this, we could come up with smart solutions, Mr. Speaker. We could set a different rate for the third tag. We could set a different rate even higher for the fourth tag. This would be a fair and reasonable response for those hunters who go out there and use caribou to put food on their table.
I think we need to get buy-in on reduce and consumption in a voluntary way from GHL holders and resident hunters. If aboriginal organizations are in agreement, we could establish hunting corridors, Mr. Speaker. We could look at ways to make it less easy to get these caribou. There are things like the ice roads where people can pull up on Gordon Lake and just shoot caribou, unlike in the old days when they used to have to skidoo out for them. Now they pull up a truck and shoot them at will.
Mr. Speaker, at this time, may I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement?