Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On February 2nd I made a Member’s statement

outlining concerns I received about the most recent public consultation process that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has been conducting on the proposed Wildlife Act.

There is concern that these consultations are not really being conducted to get input on the proposed changes but rather to inform the people on what the department is planning to put before this Legislature. Many participants have the feeling that their concerns about the content is being ignored and that only token or administrative changes are being considered by ENR, so no real or substantive changes will result from these current public consultation sessions, which started in November, then over Christmas and ended in mid-January.

Mr. Speaker, on February 2nd I asked the Minister

some clear questions. I was trying to get the Minister to provide constituents across the Northwest Territories with some confidence that their voices and input have been seriously considered during this most recent round of consultation; specifically, the voices of the non-Aboriginal hunters, the Akaitcho and the Dehcho, whose only input into the proposed and final act come as a result of the really important public consultations.

Mr. Speaker, I was very frustrated by the Minister’s response to my questions. Rather than answer my questions, the Minister, in my opinion, danced a dance of deflection. Rather than answer these important questions he challenged the credibility of the NWT Wildlife Federation, accused me of egregious behaviour, made continual reference to 54 drafts, but wouldn’t confirm how many of these drafts have been done after the current

consultations. And when pressed for examples of how ENR would be incorporating input heard from the residents during these most recent rounds of consultations, the Minister provided examples of clauses that were already included in the proposed act, items that have not been changed since the current round of public consultations.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, consultations have been going on for over 10 years. Unfortunately none of these consultations included the distribution of the current departmental draft and only this last round of consultation included the plain language summary. Yes, Mr. Speaker, the drafting of this proposed legislation recognized treaty and Aboriginal rights. Some Aboriginal governments participated in the drafting. This is a unique and respectful practice which needs to be applauded. However, we are still a public government and the voices of all our residents must be heard and acknowledged.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, a lot of good work has been done. However, one would think that the Minister would want an act of this importance to be as near perfect as possible before putting it in front of this House.

If the Minister can’t demonstrate that this most recent and final round of public consultation has had meaningful impact...