Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we’ve heard from Members, we’ve heard from the leadership across the Northwest Territories, the people, caribou is a way of life for many across the Northwest Territories and our neighbouring territories in the Yukon and Nunavut. It is so important, in fact, Mr. Speaker, that when the issue of the decline in caribou populations across the Northwest Territories arose, the government-of-the-day started investing money into doing a count, and a re-count, and another count. In those senses, the cumulative amount of money we’ve put on the table as a Government of the Northwest Territories is in the neighbourhood of around $8 million, to make sure that we’ve done the counts, to consult with our aboriginal partners across the Northwest Territories, to ensure that we were doing the right work together to ensure the safety of caribou.
Mr. Speaker, it is easy to see why we as leaders and aboriginal leaders in this House can become so emotional when it comes to the issue of caribou, because many of us walked the land with our parents and grandparents to hunt to bring the meat home, to feed our families, to share with our other extended family that lost theirs that could supply the meat for them.
So, Mr. Speaker, we look at those things and we weigh those things very carefully. This is a decision being made from those afar and in Ottawa or in ivory towers in Toronto, about what we can do as people of the Northwest Territories. This is about the Inuvialuit, the Gwich’in, the Sahtu, the Tlicho, the Dehcho, the Akaitcho, the NWT Metis and residents of the Northwest Territories when it comes to preserving a herd of caribou that could
mean more for our future generations if we take the right steps. That’s easy to see, Mr. Speaker, because before the election of this government, the last government, the Government of the Northwest Territories was cost sharing I believe some from the federal government, pulled together a summit, a caribou summit to talk about the serious situation we found our herds in in the Northwest Territories. Almost half a million dollars it cost to hold this summit so that we can talk about the declining herds across the Northwest Territories.
So, Mr. Speaker, consultation has been underway. It has been underway for years. So let’s not forget about the past, because there’s an issue we have to deal with today. The issue that we have to deal with today is a declining herd. The caribou do not respect boundary lines. They do not respect who has authority. They move along freely on the land as the good Lord put them on to do so. If we want to go back to the good word, there’s talk about how we, as people, are supposed to manage the animals that we subsist on, but there’s many a wiser person that can do that than me, Mr. Speaker.
Now, I can recall, Mr. Speaker, hunting with my father, travelling across the Delta by boat, having to leave the Inuvik side and go across the Delta to hunt on the Aklavik side, because there was no caribou on our side in the fall time. I can remember packing caribou in the foothills to get back to our boat, because we had to walk a long ways up to get that caribou so we could bring it home in the fall time to help our subsistence. Even further back than that, we’ve heard Members talk about not just five years, not 10 years, 30 years, 50 years in my father’s time, God bless his soul, he’s no longer with us, but he was in the day when there was no caribou in the Delta. The fact that the Government of Canada had to step in and bring a reindeer herd across to help us subsist and survive on.
In fact, in today’s environment, reindeer are once again starting to fill the gap in the Far North because, overall, the herds are declining. We’ve got co-management boards that we’re a part of, the Government of the Northwest Territories is a part of, that we’ve put together through the land claim agreements and the self-government agreement with the Tlicho where we work together, we do the science together, we look at the traditional knowledge together and we come up with a plan in moving forward. In fact, I think it’s through that work that the fall hunt by the Akaitcho was cancelled, because there was serious concern about the survival of the herd. You don’t take that step lightly, but that step was taken this fall. Now, the issue of being at a meeting may have helped us in clarifying the situation, but, simply, as we’ve heard, the value of the caribou to our people, to our way of life, to our culture is so important that no decision made by
any level of government to try and save a herd would be taken lightly.
You know, we talk about our past and our traditional knowledge, when we had access to hunting caribou. I as a young boy, before the Dempster Highway for example -- and I’ll speak of the northern part of the Territory -- before the highway, we used to have to use boats and snowmobiles. Nowadays we have easier access, even in the Akaitcho area by the winter road, access by fast snow machine, access by planes and helicopters to spot where the animals are, easier hunting, quicker access, more powerful guns, more animals being taken. Mr. Speaker, we talk of traditional knowledge and that was very important and helps us today, but today’s environment there’s GPS, which also deals with how we get and how fast we can get to the caribou. Those things have to be taken into consideration,
Mr. Speaker, when we talk about the Bathurst and the one herd, let’s not forget about the other herds that are suffering. But through the science and through the knowledge, through travelling out there with our aboriginal partners to look where the animals are, to see that there could be a sustainable harvest on other parts of herds out there, and in fact that initiative has been taken. It’s been taken with the Tlicho, it’s been offered to the Akaitcho so that people can hunt outside the wintering grounds of the Bathurst because the wintering grounds of the Bathurst are accessible. Let’s think about this: it’s accessible to almost 30,000 people of the Northwest Territories because of where it’s located and the access by highways, by snowmobiles, by planes and helicopters. It is accessible. Yes, we have rules about how we can harvest around planes and helicopters, but it’s easy to spot and tell people where they need to go. That’s something that we have to take into consideration when we weigh these decisions, that the access is one thing that should weigh on all of us.
We can’t allow ourselves to be lost in the real decision. As Members have heard, as I have heard, as people of the Territories have heard, the Dene Nation themselves, the leadership themselves, the aboriginal leadership themselves have taken a stance. They said they wanted the herds to be preserved, that we needed to take immediate steps. That was a motion in 2007: take immediate steps to make sure that we’ve focused on conservation of the caribou.
Those examples exist for those co-management boards that we are a part of when it comes to the low numbers of caribou. The decision is made by the leaders of the regions to hunt bulls only, to restrict the number of hunts that happen. So those initiatives are being taken by aboriginal leaders across the North. In fact, I would say that this
motion is a good motion, because it allows us to bring some level of discussion to the table. But we also have committed in this House, prior to the motion, that the Minister will, in fact, set up a process working with the Wekeezhii, working with the Akaitcho, working with the NWT Metis when they make their recommendations, because it is not one group that affects the herd. It is a number of groups that affect the herd. There is a commitment to pull them together and come up with a harvest management plan going forward. But in the interim, when you look at the science, the numbers, the amounts being taken on an annual basis, one year of almost 7,000 animals, what that would do to a herd of 30,000. That is a substantial hit on a herd. Let’s not ignore that in our political debate. Let’s not ignore that while we discuss the fate of the caribou.
Mr. Speaker, we only want to do what is right for our future generations. We want to make sure that our future generations have caribou to harvest, that we won’t be having to, for long periods of time, go to the bison or bring further reindeer to offset the caribou that have left because our combined responsibility as leaders in the North to put aside some of those differences, who have power, but to go from the herd first. In fact, we are so concerned about it, that we don’t get distracted about who’s got authority, that in fact, in speaking to my Cabinet, I said let’s set that question forward. Let’s deal with that. Let’s have someone deal with that question. Because far too often when tough decisions need to be made, it becomes, well, who has the authority.
Mr. Speaker, we are going to deal with that question. But that question alone will not save the herd, will not save caribou for future generations if that herd, in fact, is to disappear. What is going to save that herd is what we, as people in this place we call home, take action on, and that is to ensure that we preserve the herd for our future generations. That is my children, your children, and our grandchildren. So what is it going to be? Is it going to be the people or is it going to be the herd and the future generations? I say the future generations are where we should put our focus. That is where we should be aiming for. That is our responsibility collectively. It is not about who is calling the shots.
Mr. Speaker, who is going to be known as the last one who fired the last shot in the Bathurst herd? Let’s not get there. What we are trying to offer is a temporary solution to give an opportunity for the herd to last so that the Wekeezhii, the Akaitcho, the Metis and us can come up with a plan for the future so that we can help the caribou. Thank you very much.