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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
With chiefs and community leaders from Dettah to Sachs Harbour looking on, Environment and Natural Resources Minister Michael Miltenberger quietly shelved the Wildlife Act in the face of widespread opposition.

Miltenberger said Monday that he wanted to put the legislation to a vote, but Wednesday, near the end of an emotionally-charged afternoon, he said simply that "the government will not be proceeding with Bill 9 at this point."

On Thursday, the final possible day for a vote, he said, "I was one seat short. It's up to the next legislature to find a consensus."

No one was surprised by the move. Premier Floyd Rolland even hinted at near the end of a long and at times emotional farewell address to the legislature.

"Even as minister we have to take a step back in the interest of all people," Roland said in recalling the lessons of his 16 years in the legislative assembly, "and I think we'll see an example of that in the next little bit."

The final days of the 16th legislative assembly were filled with behind-the-scenes meetings aimed at blocking revisions to the act that have been under consultation for a decade.

The key issue with the latest version, according to Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay, was the plan to leave the contentious question of membership on an advisory conference to future governments.

It had been proposed that the conference include a mix of representatives from governments and authorities with legislated wildlife management responsibilities, but there were objections from the Gwich'in, Sahtu, and Tlicho representatives, Ramsay said.

"The issues that have made the conference provision so contentious will not be any easier to resolve in the future," Ramsay said.

Nunakput MLA Jackie Jacobson tabled letters Tuesday from the Gwich'in Renewable Resource Board, the Wildlife Management Advisory Council, Inuvialuit Game Council, Gwich'in Tribal Council, and the Tlicho Government - all of them in opposition to the Wildlife Act.

Tlicho Grand Chief Eddie Erasmus, Whati chief Alphonz Nitsiza, Frank Pokiak, chairman of the Inuvialuit Game Council, and Larry Carpenter, chair of the Wildlife Management Advisory Council for the Northwest Territories, watched from the public gallery.

The chiefs returned Wednesday with Joe Rabesca, former Tlicho grand chief, and were introduced to the house by Education Minister Jackson Lafferty, MLA for Monfwi, who spoke in Dogrib. They looked on as Miltenbereger consigned the Wildlife Act to the agenda of the next government.

Devolution, the issue that will define Roland's tenure as premier, also cleared a challenge on the penultimate day of the 16th legislature.

"We're like two old bulls meeting for the last time to bash heads," Roland told retiring Mackenzie Delta MLA David Krutko, who backed a motion from Nahendeh MLA Kevin Menicoche to shelve negotiations with the federal government for a year.

MLAs rejected the proposal to create an aboriginal devolution commission that Menicoche argued would give them a forum to discuss their concerns. Roland invited all aboriginal governments to join devolution talks that so far, have drawn in only the Inuvialuit and Metis.

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