Thank you. Once again, I appreciate the Member’s concern, and I can assure the Member that the intent here is by the very first part of November before the winter hunt really takes effect that we will have decisions made that will protect the caribou. There is a process for us to follow. This is a very complex area. We have the Yellowknives, we have the Northwest Territories Metis, we have Akaitcho, we have Tlicho, we have the Sahtu, we have the Inuvialuit as well as the territorial government and interest in the Northwest Territories Metis plus all the other southern and the Deh Cho, all that have an interest and have been harvesting this herd for many years.
So we have a need to follow a timely, compressed process, which we’re doing. I can assure the Member that by the early part of November there will be the necessary decisions made to protect the herds, both the Bathurst and the Bluenose-East. It’s clear with the Bathurst, with a tag limit of 300, that there’s not many options left when it comes to harvesting.
We also have to deal with the fact that the Bathurst herd also extends up into Nunavut and the Nunavut government still allows commercial harvest, outfitters, which to us is unacceptable. We’ve been in correspondence and communication with them to make the necessary changes, to work with us and all the other Aboriginal governments and co-management boards to protect the herd. That’s one of the other things we have to look at. We’re going to look at predator control, we’re going to look at a whole host of things, but clearly, hunting is one
area where there is the single largest impact. Thank you.