Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct; there's a lot of work that's got to be done yet and we've started the ball rolling. We've met with many governments. We've already met with the Yukon. We've met with Nunavut. We've met with Saskatchewan. We've met with the Tlicho leadership. We've met with the Yellowknives Dene. We've met with the Dene Nation. We've met with the NWT Metis Nation. We've met with the NWT Barren-Ground Outfitters. We continue to move forward and try to set up further meetings. We've contacted Nunavut. We are working on setting up some schedules there. We've contacted the federal Minister of Natural Resources. We've asked and indicated to him we'd like to have a meeting regarding some of these issues. We've also contacted Minister Baird and also, you know, we need to be able to have the resources put in place. We have some requirements that we've included in our budgeting, our forecasted budgets. We don't have the answers yet, but that's something that we'll be working with now that this government has identified some new resources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, so we met with pretty much everybody who hopefully has an interest in caribou numbers. One person, one thing, one section of that that I didn't hear of is why didn't they meet with industry, the diamond industry? If memory services me correctly, I think the herds started going down as soon as the world's largest diamond staking claim rush started happening in the NWT. That's when we started recognizing declining numbers in caribou herds in that area. Why don't we meet with industry and find out how the impact of industry is affecting the caribou numbers? I think that has a big impact in the whole numbers in themselves, but reducing outfitters' numbers by 493 tags, you know, those things aren't going to make any difference whatsoever. I think if we...

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. There was a question there. I'll allow the Minister to answer it. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have met with industry. We've met with all the different governments, including the co-management boards. We've met with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. We met with Parks Canada. We met with the Canadian Boreal Initiative. We met with ConocoPhillips. We met with DeBeers Canada. We met with Diavik Diamond Mines, and BHP Diamonds and World Wildlife Fund Canada. Mr. Speaker, all these organizations and governments are partners with us. Most of them have provided dollars and information. Any information gathered at the sites are shared with us and we share our information with them. So this has been an ongoing process. We have worked with all the different governments. We've also worked with industry, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions this afternoon will be for Mr. McLeod, the Minister for Environment and Natural Resources, on the issue of caribou or, rather, people management when it comes to protecting and preserving our caribou herd.

Mr. Speaker, especially in relation to the stakeholder group, the outfitters in the NWT, you know, this government, in the 1980s, actually established this industry. This is not something that sort of grew from the outside or from demand for people who wanted to come in. This industry was created by this government as a way of diversifying and incorporating aboriginal culture and practice with a way to diversify our economy.

Mr. Speaker, while we have invested heavily in developing this industry and its promotion in the infrastructure side of it and in regulation, we still do not have a thorough and a complete and a comprehensive information base on which to make information. This is something that is widely accepted, and yet, Mr. Speaker, we have made recommendations that will in effect eliminate this industry practically overnight. Do the math, Mr. Speaker. From 1,243 tags issued last year we're going to 750 tags this year. The recommendation remains on the book that there be 350 tags next year. Mr. Speaker, 350 tags is not enough to sustain an industry. Based on the lack of precise information on caribou populations, why does ENR recommend harvest levels of outfitters that will, without question, kill this industry? Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All our information that has been gathered over the last couple of years indicates that this herd has been declining. It's crashing. We're probably at the 50 percent of the population. Our view, the tag allocation, there is no sustainable yield. We have looked at how we can continue to provide efforts to save the herd and at the same time provide tags for commercial hunting. Our actions are based on the numbers that we've gathered for the Bathurst herd and we've provided an estimation of 4 percent yield. That proposal has gone to the Wekweezhii board and in the event now that Wekweezhii has indicated that they're not going to be providing a recommendation to us until sometime in March, or not do the hearings until March and then the recommendation in April. We went ahead and decided that we had to make a decision so the outfitters could have a number they could work with. We looked at the tags that were sold up to early January, I think January 8th. The hunts that were sold were forecasted to be or predicted to be at 750 and set our number accordingly.

Now, my job is the healthy future of the caribou herd. That's where my focus is. We can't have an industry if we have no caribou. So we have laid out a very thorough Caribou Strategy, management plan, that looks at a number of things; first of all, to engage partners. I think we've been working on that front for some time now to talk to all the different organizations and governments, to bring them to where everybody understands the situation we're in. Also we have to provide information for management.

...to engage partners. I think we have been working on that front for some time now to talk to all the different organizations and governments to bring them to where everybody understands the situation we are in. Also, we have to provide information for management. The third thing is to start working on education compliance. We also have to work on managing human activity. That is one of the areas that we have some direct involvement and can make some decisions that will have an impact on the herd. We also have to be able to look at the area of addressing hardships. So there are still a lot of different areas that we need to provide a lot more information. But, Mr. Speaker, the bottom line is the interest of the herd is in the forefront for us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Short supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister mentioned the responsibilities that the Wekeezhii Renewable Resource Management Board has in this situation. The whole aspect of governance is really what is at issue here. Mr. Speaker, the Wekeezhii board I know has expressed in writing to the Minister its discomfort and its displeasure at the manner in which the board was pre-empted its role which is outlined in the...

Do you have a question, Mr. Braden?

...and has caused a considerable disruption in that governance training. Mr. Speaker, why did ENR undermine the authority of the Wekeezhii Renewable Resources Board when it decreed tag allowances for 2007 without waiting for this board's consultation?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I think the Member is asking me why didn't I just sit on my hands and do nothing for this year. Mr. Speaker, I couldn't do that. Mr. Speaker, we had to make a decision. The Wekeezhii board agreement allows us to set quotas, if quotas are not set by the board in a timely manner. We took that clause and utilized that. We had to make a decision, Mr. Speaker. Our recommendation was 350. The caribou outfitters, some members, the Yellowknife members came forward and raised objections. They said that was too much. We did not have the Wekeezhii board onside for this, so we had to set a number for this year.

Mr. Speaker, on a couple of occasions, we have tried to have people reduce quotas. That has not been successful, Mr. Speaker. We had to step forward and make a decision. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, while we are on the topic of consultation, I am wondering if the Minister could explain why ENR did not effectively and fully involve his counterpart, the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, in making this devastating recommendation considering that that department also has a role to play in the management of the outfitting industry, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, the proposal for the Wekeezhii reductions and some of the management actions went to ITI prior to us releasing it. It also went to Cabinet. We also had the Premier involved with some of the discussions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, that is an interesting statement, because we now know that our caribou species, at least with the decisions that this government has made, we are not going to have an outfitting industry. The polar bears are also a species that are under considerable examination and threat. I am just wondering, in the very large and long-term perspective, Mr. Speaker, does the department believe that there can still be a sustainable and a successful sports outfitting industry here in the NWT for any species?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of species that are out there that are very much endangered. We have to be very mindful of that fact. There are surveys that we do to give us indications of where the species are at. We would like to continue to support hunting in this area. We would like to support ecotourism; we would like to support fishing, but those are all dependent on having a supply of the product. In this case, the caribou are in decline. We have to make some tough decisions. We are also under some extreme pressure from some of the other bodies out there that would like us to see some cutbacks and how the animals are utilized from all users of this group. Thank you.