Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I certainly recognize the difficulty in addressing this issue in light of where we are in terms of legalities around it. It's obvious that the Members of this House, like many of the residents across the Territories, are very passionate about the caribou and making sure that the herds are here forever.
I'm certainly very encouraged by what we've heard from the Caribou Summit, the traditional harvesters, the residents who attended and many of my colleagues that attended from this House; the discussion and the debate about how the best way to help the herd recover and to be there for the long term. I'm certainly overwhelmed, Mr. Speaker, by the response, the discussion and the commitment that in the last four months I've listened to and heard on the issue of caribou. Certainly I'm very pleased with the level of discussion that happened at the Caribou Summit. It was certainly an historic gathering, as somebody mentioned here earlier; about 180 people that attended from all across the NWT to share their experience and their knowledge about caribou. I think it's probably one of the first times that we've had elders, leaders, harvesters from all across the North, different levels of government, industry and others to come together and discuss the issue of caribou and caribou populations, and talk about potential actions and plans to preserve this very valuable resource. I certainly, again, have to applaud all the members that attended for this honesty and for their commitment shown at the summit.
Many people at the summit and at our information sharing at our community meetings talked about the sacrifices that aboriginal people have made historically when caribou numbers were low. I think that same spirit and willingness has been demonstrated at the summit, at a lot of our discussions in the communities and certainly in this House over the last couple of weeks. The summit has reinforced the actions taken by some of the caribou management boards and also this government to deal with the barren-ground caribou numbers. Many of the actions discussed at the Caribou Summit reflected that.
I wanted to say that Members of this House can rest assured that this government will continue to work closely with the co-management boards and continue to work with the communities as we work towards implementing the actions of the Caribou Summit. I think as stewards of this land and of the wildlife that we share it with, we all have to admit, take ownership, and play a part in the conservation of caribou. This role is, of course, not only shared by us. There are other jurisdictions that share this role with us, mainly Nunavut, Saskatchewan and the Yukon, and we've committed to working with them and making every effort to start putting steps in place to protect the calving grounds and different areas that need to be protected. We will, of
course, have to also increase our knowledge on the status of all the herds. As Members know, we are doing more work in this area. We are doing a survey of the Beverly herd this year and we have support from other jurisdictions. There will be a meeting with my counterparts in Nunavut and also with Saskatchewan to talk about protecting calving grounds.
In closing, the support and discussion around this issue from the Members of the Legislature and also at the Caribou Summit has certainly been appreciated and I look forward to working with all the different MLAs of this House, the co-management boards, the communities, harvesters, industry and our other partners, to ensure that this very important resource is there for our current generation and also our future generations, Mr. Speaker. I also wanted to point out that, as this a recommendation to Cabinet, we will not be voting on this motion.
