Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had a lot of things that I wanted to say on this particular motion, but listening to all the Members talk, I think most of the things that I wanted to say are pretty well covered.
I had heard some comments about survival of our people and destroying a way of life, and talk about a traditional way of life, which is all true. I talked with some of the old-timers and they say we know nothing about the traditional way of life and how they had to go and harvest and how they had to go to look after the caribou. I always remember, in 1998, I was driving the Dempster Highway and ran across a well-respected elder from the Mackenzie Delta from Fort McPherson. He is no longer with us today. I ran into him at the border. The back of his truck was full of caribou guts. I asked him what he was doing. He said, well, I am driving along the highway picking up caribou guts from the side of the road. He said, we tell people that we look after our animals ourselves and we are not setting a very good example. So he was picking them up and he was bringing them to the dump so they are not littering the side of the road. I thought that was so admirable, that somebody didn’t want people to think badly of the way we look after the caribou that he is taking it upon himself to pick them up and throw them away.
I read in the paper about certain aboriginal groups that cancelled their fall hunt because they had some concerns with the survival of the herd. I thought that was leadership. That was wisdom. I commended that at this point where we are today.
Back in 2006, I think when I sat as a Regular Member, there was a caribou summit and they talked about 120,000 animals. I hear today we are down to 30,000. That is four years. That is four years we have been talking and doing nothing for four years and the herd continues to decline. We will talk for the next four years and we will talk the herd into extinction. And then what? I never want to get the point to where I have a conversation with my soon-to-be four-year-old grandson and he’ll ask me, what about the caribou? I said, well, sorry, grandson; I was exercising my aboriginal right and wasn’t concerned about or thinking about you. I wanted to get what I can when I can. I wasn’t concerned about you and yours. Let’s cook some more pork chops, because we have no more caribou to cook. There are things like that that we need to take all these into consideration.
We talk about consulting. We can consult until we are blue in the face, but I see things very simply. The simple fact of the matter is, there is a serious concern today with the survival of the caribou herd. Is it not our duty as stewards of this land to protect them and not be worried about, as somebody said, who has authority or who is calling the shots. We have a duty to do. I think we should be leaders and
show some wisdom and take it upon ourselves to protect the herds. They can’t survive without us. They are at a disadvantage.
You watch TV and I was watching something. I think it was something back east. It was down south somewhere where they were driving along the side of the road. They were blasting at the caribou even though they were told that there wasn’t very many of them. They were interviewing a guy from down there. He said, well, it is my aboriginal right. The guy said, well, there’s not many left. He said, it is still my aboriginal right. They are driving trucks and they are firing off the side of the road and throwing them in the back of the truck. That is not the aboriginal way. It shouldn’t be.
We do have a traditional way of life. Caribou have sustained us for generations. I think it is time that sacrifices we make today will benefit down the road. I think we have to take that very seriously. I look at all those groups that are taking it upon themselves to recognize the fact that herds are in danger and they do need our help. They are taking some steps into doing what they can to preserve the herd. That is wisdom. They will have to live without for a while, but they are willing to do that. I think that is real wisdom.
We can consult, I said, until we are blue in the face, but I think it is time for us to step up too. We can’t quit playing politics with the survival of the herd. That is what this is. It is politics. Survival of the herd is the most important thing. I can guarantee you, and from the numbers and from some of the comments I heard, in a few years we will have no more caribou. Like someone said, who wants to shoot the last one? Once we do that, who will we blame? Because we are always blaming somebody. It is always somebody else’s fault. But in this particular case, we will have nobody to blame but us, because we had an opportunity to do something about it and we sat on our hands and did nothing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.