Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I don't think there could be enough talk about the caribou crisis here in the NWT. Instead of reiterating reasons why the current interim measures will only result in the extinction of an industry, let alone a species, I would just like to broaden the view of the current public perspective on our wildlife management in this government.

Besides the fact that the resources dedicated to the caribou alone will not be sufficient enough to determine what numbers are actually out there, the good reason being is that our land is so huge and that counting caribou has to be done over a short period of time in order to be more accurate. This, along with many other legitimate challenges which will require more money, has to be part of a big plan to reorganize and reprioritize our wildlife

management in this government. We need more money to determine and confidently guesstimate what levels all our principal wildlife food sources are at for residents of the NWT. We need more money to determine accurate moose populations in all regions. We need more money to determine woodland and Mountain Caribou populations in the Akaitcho, Deh Cho and the Sahtu regions. We need more money to determine what our bear populations are at, more money into researching and understanding our small game cycles of abundance and scarcity.

Mr. Speaker, we cannot allow our wildlife to be viewed as expendable or simply renewable items during our government's planning and budgeting process. Mr. Speaker, we all have to learn from this caribou crisis. Our lesson being the fact that we need more money and wildlife management, monitoring and conservation if we want to retain any type of wildlife to manage for our future. Period. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause