Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I also rise in support of this work of the Inuvik Caribou Summit workshop that was held there in January. We've heard it all before, we see it all in the news, and we hear it here in the House just about every day all the caribou crisis that the NWT's going through and all the pressures that the caribou are feeling from development, climate change, and even from just harvesters in general, whether they be aboriginal or non-aboriginal. I think that this motion definitely is demanding some action from this government, but also we have to expect action from everybody here in the NWT that harvests caribou, that uses caribou, and lives with caribou, Mr. Speaker. It's with these people where the action has to start. We have to start right at the grassroots to the people who depend highly on caribou as a means of curbing the high cost of living here in the NWT, and helping their families survive with the high price of beef and other meat here in the NWT. We need caribou and we need our fish in order to carry forward as a people that thrive here in the NWT with the challenges that we have.
I think this motion definitely speaks to the fact that the regulatory processes and jurisdictions that this government works with the co-management boards on these caribou declining numbers is something that we have to really be supportive of regardless of what decisions these co-management boards come out with. We all have to stand behind them because obviously those co-management boards are speaking for the people that are most greatly affected by their decision that they're going to make, and whatever they're going to have to live with, I'm sure other people here in the NWT will be able to live with just as easy, because they're going to be taking the brunt of whatever decision that they're going to come down with and it's going to affect the people that they're making that decision for and in conjunction with.
So I fully support this motion that the honourable Mr. Braden brought forward here with Mr. Pokiak, that action -- and it starts right out there on the land -- Mr. Speaker, with everybody who's out there hunting right now. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there today and all winter and they're harvesting caribou as we speak. I just hope that with their actions out there, that they fully respect and endorse whatever the co-management boards come around and the decision that they have to live with, we're all going to have to live with it. I hope that we don't see anything like this coming around for the next 20 or 30 years that we're going to have to address again. I hope we can do it right this time and then we wouldn't have to come up with the crisis situation like we do today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause