Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I, of course, support this motion. I believe that we didn’t have to be here today. I still stand firm in the belief that had our leadership, our Premier, our Minister of ENR, attended the Dene national leadership meeting in Fort Simpson, we would have come a long way to resolving this issue. But because of the attention, or by the inattention of our government, we have to give it attention, Mr. Speaker.

For me it has always been critical, the fact that aboriginal people are not allowed to hunt. I respect the need for preservation and conservation, but, at the same time, Mr. Speaker, aboriginal people have the inherent right to hunt for food. In fact, our NWT Act says it loud and clear that nothing in the NWT Act, the ordinances, can be made to restrict and prohibit Indians and Inuit from hunting for food, Mr. Speaker. This is the case that we are here today. I believe that the Minister could have… There was a need for a ban. There was a need for a no-hunting zone, but there was no need to restrict aboriginal people from hunting.

I think the government and I think the Minister is wrong in this case. We’ve got precedents all across our great land of Canada, even with depleted species. Aboriginal people go to court and they win all the time, Mr. Speaker. It’s not because they want a wholesale slaughter and make animals extinct, Mr. Speaker, but there is an allowable harvest level that can be achieved for most herds or most species.

I believe that the Minister acted in haste. I don’t think he made the case to myself or to the aboriginal leadership that this is a case where this herd is extinct. In fact, thinking out loud, for myself, for some of the chiefs, I think that 25 caribou per community was something that even that bare minimum is something that the communities were looking at. That’s subsistence hunting, and that’s all the people asked for, Mr. Speaker.

Once again, I do not believe that our GNWT had the power to restrict or prohibit aboriginal people from hunting for food. However, it’s done. But I believe it can be undone, Mr. Speaker, to salvage whatever’s left of the winter hunting season. It’s not lifting the ban, but to allow aboriginal peoples to hunt there, Mr. Speaker. I think the fact that the media, our North has a lot of attention on this issue and the reason why my colleagues have been speaking about this issue over the past couple of weeks is because it’s a very dangerous precedent what the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources has done. It’s something I cannot support. I said it right off at the start and I think that this decision has to be reversed when it comes to First Nations people. The ban should stay. The no-hunting zone should stay. But what should not stay is the right to restrict aboriginal people from subsistence harvesting, Mr. Speaker.

The motion calls for us sitting down, coming to... With willingness we can work towards a solution. But I’m still upset, Mr. Speaker, that we didn’t have to be here today. It could have been done a couple weeks ago. At the same time, I really appreciate Mr. Yakeleya for moving the motion forward. I stand firmly behind that and I’ve got no problems seconding it. I’m really happy about the support that we’re getting from our colleagues for this motion, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much.