Thank you, Madam Speaker. I am not aware of the movements of bears. I don't know that the departmental biologists who study bears are aware of the exact movement of bears. I know they have used radio collars, especially on polar bears, to determine movement, but whether they used this for barrenland grizzlies, I'm not aware. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. To my knowledge, the bears that were caught within the Northwest Territories were caught legally; any bears that may have been caught in any lands within our jurisdiction were caught for the purposes of their pelt. We are not aware of any killings of bears specifically for the purposes of acquiring the gallbladders. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Right now, we are doing a number of studies, especially in the areas where mining activities are taking place. But, specifically to study Barrenland Grizzly Bears is not a project that the department is doing at this point. They are doing studies on grizzly bears in conjunction with other animals that live or survive in the areas where the mining activities are taking place. But, specifically to study grizzly bears is something that the department does on an ongoing basis, but to my knowledge there is no definite information that we have on grizzly bears and the population. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. To my understanding, the Barrenland Grizzly Bear is an animal which the department has been observing, but the population of the Barrenland Grizzly Bears has been something that the biologists were not able to confirm. At this point, to the best of our knowledge, I believe they have realized that there is a lower number of grizzly bears and the Department of Renewable Resources, over the summer, put in a camp where a bunch of the mining activity is taking place at this point, and are trying to find out exactly what did take place. At this point, we don't really know whether there was a natural decline of grizzly bears, but it is something that the department is trying to find out. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. To my knowledge, there were communities that were reporting dead fish in their communities. However, they reported the fish to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, who are rightly responsible for finding out what happened to the fish. The dialogue the department would have with Fisheries and Oceans is that our officers would be reporting these occurrences to them. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The responsibility of the territorial government, to this point, has been observer status, where we receive information from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans about the incident that occurred on the river. It is the responsibility of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to find out the causes for the dead fish that were found on the Mackenzie River. As far as I understand, Renewable Resources has observer status and if there is some way that we can assist, then that is about all we can do at this point.

It is the responsibility of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to find out the causes for the dead fish and then to try to resolve the problem. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. With regard to the incident that has occurred with the fish in the Mackenzie River, it is the responsibility of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to find the cause.

With regard to the fish that appeared to be dead on the river, as far as I could tell, and the information that I have received indicates that the warming of the water may be a partial cause for the fish dying in the river. But to date, I don't have any definite answers as to why this occurred. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am not aware of any particular incidents where our biologist would have been made aware by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. To my understanding, it is the responsibility of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which is a federal department, who would be responsible for this type of incident in any of our waters. Whether they passed this information on to our biologists, I am not aware of that. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have a return to oral question asked by Mr. Gargan on October 27, 1994 regarding policy for walk-in freezers.

The person who will conduct assessments of community freezers is Mr. Mike Stevens. Mr. Stevens will assess the conditions and use of freezers by communities, ways to increase cost-effectiveness of existing freezers and needs of communities without freezers.

Regional centres have been contacted with regard to the most appropriate dates for various community meetings. The tentative schedule is as follows: Inuvik area, November 7th to 10th; Fort Simpson area, November 15th to 17th; Keewatin, November 21st to 25th; South Slave area, November 29th to December 1st; Kitikmeot, December 5th to 9th; North Slave, December 13th to 15th; Sahtu, January 10th to 13th; Baffin Island area, January 17th to 27th. So for Mr. Gargan's benefit, Mr. Stevens should be in his specific area from November 29th to December 1st. Thank you, Madam Speaker.