Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ve been reviewing some of my notes from yesterday and from the exchange I had with the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and the Minister of ENR. Mr. Speaker, the issue with me is with the consultation process in terms of looking at the issue of caribou with the aboriginal people. Mr. Speaker, I also understand that the Minister indicated in the House that they were close to coming to a resolution of this issue with the Yellowknives Dene. Certainly, there are two views as to the type of resolution, Mr. Speaker. I find it very puzzling that we are coming to a point in this type of discussion where you have two opposing views as to dealing with the caribou in this specific area. It also entails other discussions around rights, treaty rights, food for survival, even the method of consultation and the method that we’ve been receiving or even the scientific evidence. I haven’t seen much weight on the traditional evidence in terms of that coming forward, in terms of what are the aboriginal people telling us about the caribou in terms of evidence of the elders, in terms of how we should deal with this important species for their livelihood.

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to follow up later regarding this Member’s statement with my questions to the Minister in terms of a resolution with the Yellowknives Dene in terms of how do we resolve this issue. I think that there are some ways that we could work out. There have been suggestions by

the Dene Nation in their motions in terms of how do we deal with this issue way before it’s coming to this point here. So I want to ask the Minister later on in terms of how do we ensure that the needs of the people who depend on caribou are looked after. Their culture is at risk and at stake here. There is a herd that the ENR office has said that is going to possibly become extinct if we do nothing. There has not been much weight given to the diamond mines up there and the thousands and thousands of trucks that go by there every year. There are other issues we haven’t talked about. It seems like we are just putting this on the aboriginal hunters, Mr. Speaker. That is not fair.