Thank you, Mr. Chair. Over the last number of months we’ve been meeting on a regular basis with the Yellowknives Dene, with their leadership, with their elders’ senate, and there are fundamental, I guess, issues here that are not easy to address. We continue to want to meet with them to resolve this issue. We’re hoping that the latest survey of the Bathurst herd would give more positive numbers; however, the herd is still at 32,000 to 35,000 animals. The percentage of cows has not improved; a slight increase in the bulls; however, we all want this herd to recover as quickly as we can. We want to work with them to develop short-term management actions. We want to work
with them to develop long-term management actions. We want to work with them for them to come to the table to develop things such as range management plans for the Bathurst herd, also for the long-term vision of the herd with the overall comprehensive management plan. We need them at the table for that. We continue to stress that.
As far as tags being distributed to others, the non-Yellowknives Dene, that’s not the case. The 150 tags available for the Bathurst herd are for the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. The other 150 for the Bathurst is through the Tlicho. Again, we want to renew an agreement with them so that we work together to continue to employ monitors’ check stations as well to work alongside our officers. We also want to ensure, as the Member had identified previously, that there’s a mechanism that we accurately record the harvest and know what exactly is being harvested. We are open today and going forward to continue to try to resolve this issue with the Yellowknives Dene in relation to the Bathurst herd here and harvest. It’s actually beyond that. Other herds are adjacent to the Bathurst. We continue to want to work with them to figure out means to access those herds so that they have caribou meat in their freezers for the majority of the year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.