A workshop is being planned in Yellowknife to find ways to deal with the problem of dwindling Peary caribou herds in the High Arctic.

Wildlife minister Stephen Kakfwi made the announcement while responding to questions about the herd by High Arctic MLA Levi Barnabas.

"I hope to see a workshop in Yellowknife with a number of different parties to address the issue of what should be done and who should be taking the lead and the responsibility for addressing the concern of the future of the Peary caribou herd," said Kakfwi.

Severe winters and unusually cold temperatures have caused the caribou population to drop in recent years.

Last fall attempts were made to relocate several members of the herd from the High Arctic to Calgary, but bad weather hampered the plans.

Kakfwi said it is better if the people who depend on the caribou develop their own action plan and carry it out themselves to protect the herd.

Off target

The Department of Education, Culture and Employment will not reach its target of a 50 per cent aboriginal teaching staff in the classroom by 2000.

Yellowknife South MLA Seamus Henry asked for a personnel update from Minister of Education Charles Dent last week.

"There are a number of boards which are coming relatively close to that goal in terms of the number of teachers right now," said Dent. "Those boards in the Nunavut region tend to be much closer. The boards in the western region are not as close."

He went on to say that the department is planning to re-emphasize the Teacher Education Program and is going to set a new goal of 2003 to achieve the target originally set for 2000.

Dent responded that there are 62 full-time aboriginal teachers in the Baffin, two part-time, six on leave and four are with the board, when asked by Henry for a breakdown by region of aboriginal teachers. He will provide other statistics to Dent about the other regions by letter.

Find a solution

A motion passed unanimously last Friday recommending a resolution of the pay-equity issue in the NWT.

Yellowknife North MLA Roy Erasmus made the motion, seconded by Iqaluit MLA Ed Picco.

Erasmus states in his motion that, "the legislative assembly strongly urges the GNWT and the UNW to work together in collective bargaining to negotiate fair compensation to affected employees and rates of pay that treat men and women equally for performing work of equal value."

He said the pay-equity complaint and other wage and benefit cost issues should be resolved in the time frame for inclusion in a new collective agreement.