Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be supporting the motion. I feel quite strongly that we have to look at alternative measures to come to a solution to this bypass. I think that there are solutions out there. There have been precedents set in other areas, that we talk about managing the herds, the Bluenose herd, for instance, an area where I come from in which there was actually an agreement between the Inuvialuit, the Gwich’in, the Sahtu to look at bag limits for communities. There again, they did a survey of the caribou. They said they were in crisis. They were down to 5,000 animals. Apparently, 8,000 animals showed up the following year. Again, because we do estimates and not do the long-term survey. I think the same thing applies to the Porcupine caribou herd. There hasn’t been a survey done on that herd since 2001. I think it is important to realize that, if we are estimating numbers, there are ways that we can work around, trying to find solutions to these problems.
Mr. Speaker, other aboriginal organizations throughout the Territories have agreed on their own to shoot bulls and not cows so that you can increase the herd. Look at ways of bag limits so every community has 25 tags so that anybody who wants to go out hunting, say, the Bluenose herd, they can go to the band office, get a tag and go hunting. At least it is a controllable system that is in place for harvesting caribou.
Mr. Speaker, I, for one, feel that this government, on one hand you say it is a conservation measure but on the other hand you are saying, well, you consume. Go ahead and hunt the species over there, over there and down here, but you can’t hunt from here. You are hunting the species. I think if you are putting pressure in one area, someone is going to take a couple thousand animals in one area. It is the still the same type of herd you are talking about.
In regards to the Bathurst herd, the Bathurst herd at one time were three herds. Now we have something like nine herds that are out there. To me, genetically, they are probably all the same animals. You are talking about the type of animal species we are looking at. I think you have to look at the whole species as a whole and exactly the genetics of what this species acquired to be classified as the Bathurst herd.
Mr. Speaker, in Quebec they had a situation in regards to the George River herds which, in 1950, the herd was down to 5,000 animals. Mr. Speaker, in 1975, some 25 years later, they were up to 700,000 animals. So in 25 years they managed to increase to 700,000 animals from 5,000 animals. That is an example of how these animals are able
to sustain themselves for thousands of years. That is where we look at statistics, drops and balances. A lot of it has to do with the whole environment that we are in, regardless if it is industrial development, bad fire seasons, looking at exactly the migration routes. Do they go to the same calving areas every year? We are finding out that they don’t. Again, it is important for us to find a way around this problem.
Mr. Speaker, I believe a solution to this problem is exactly what this motion is suggesting, that the government calls an emergency meeting with all co-management boards. The people are affected by this decision. Have a public meeting by way of a public forum. Try to find and come up with workable solutions so that, at the end of the day, there is still a means of aboriginal people sustaining their needs, allowing them to continue to hunt but also have a management system in place of managing the herd.
Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that this government take a look at some of the illustrations that I mentioned in regards to how other herds are being managed. This is not unique just to this species. I mentioned that this is something similar to the problem we are seeing with the Bluenose herd in the Western Arctic. I think it is important to find ways to work with all the co-management boards, have a general principle that we can all agree to, because we are all in this together. It doesn’t matter where the caribou come from or which species they are. We all depend on the sustainability of this herd, but more importantly, the sustainability of our communities. Without caribou, a lot of our communities will not sustain themselves. They will not be able to maintain that traditional lifestyle that they have in those communities, regardless if it is in regards to the Old Crow in the Yukon or Fort McPherson in the Northwest Territories or Wekweeti in the Northwest Territories or right in the centre of all of this.
I was surprised, Mr. Speaker, to watch the news broadcast on Saturday where they were interviewing the chief in Wekweeti, who is clearly not on side with regard to this matter. He stated that he will go hunting. He does not want help from this government. The caribou are right in their community.
If anything, we should have looked at a workable solution to allow everyone the ability to sustain some sort of a needs level but, more importantly, have a system in place that will illustrate how much caribou are being taken by tag limits and making sure they are taking the bulls and having statistics that are acceptable with regard to the scientific traditional community so when we do these estimates, we are close to the ballpark and not estimating what the numbers are.
Again, Mr. Speaker, I think we have to sit down with the aboriginal governments, co-management
boards and the people this will affect the greatest, the people in the communities. We have to find a solution to this problem, and going to court is not going to resolve this issue.
I have to make it clear that the land claims agreements, the whole Dene-Metis claims process was to ensure that the aboriginal groups were involved through a co-management system, were involved in the management of the species in the Northwest Territories and not simply leaving it up to a Minister. The Minister gets involved and it’s a question of law and a question of ensuring the integrity of the system is there by way of direction from the boards. That’s what they did regarding the Bluenose issue in the Beaufort-Delta region. The co-management boards got together from the Sahtu, the Gwich’in, the Inuvialuit and came up with a workable solution so they could deal with the Bluenose herd. That number was even lower then with regard to the species.
Again, Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support the motion on the basis of the direction that it is taking; to find a workable solution out of this problem, get the government to formulate some sort of workshop and have some time to conduct this workshop. We’ll sit down with the co-management boards and aboriginal organizations and see how we can resolve this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.