Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to provide some general comments affecting this department, and I just wanted to highlight some points that I have just noted.
One of them, of course, is my interest in terms of the move from the protected areas initiative towards, kind of, morphing the initiative into another, called conservation area networks. My understanding is that there are some key advances that have been made at the community level in terms of identifying and designating conservation area networks. Communities remain interested in terms of how that will play a part in terms of setting aside some lands throughout the NWT, so I just wanted to make a comment on that.
As colleagues have raised, too, in terms of the legislative initiative, one thing that I was reminded of was the Forest Management Act in terms of it being necessary to be updated, particularly with respect to the non-timber forest products. As we move down the road of looking at forest timber products and alternative energy initiatives in terms of trying to look at more sustainable uses of energy that we have in the NWT, my understanding is that there are legislative initiatives that will be coming forth at some point, so we wait in anticipation for those initiatives.
There are some other points that I wanted to highlight, too. Where I live, close to the Deh Cho, we realize that there are fewer caribou for people to hunt. We have a free herd of bison that live in the Mackenzie Sanctuary. This puts the population, especially the moose -- we have a special interest in ensuring that the population remains sustainable. There have been pressures, of course, stress on the moose population, as well, so we remain interested in ensuring that there are good management plans in place to ensure there is survivability.
The other note that I wanted to point out is just the land use sustainability framework, the ongoing initiative, and ensuring that it's based on traditional knowledge that is properly reflective of the Indigenous philosophy in terms of land management and conservation in the NWT. Some other points that I wanted to highlight, too. Again, my colleague raised the idea that the guardianship program which has been very successful across Canada. We need to look at ways of making it work here in the NWT. Those are just some general comments. Mahsi.