Premier Don Morin last week announced a successful bison management project in Fort Resolution this year.

"For the past several years community members have been working on a plan to repopulate the Hook Lake area with bison that are free of brucellosis and tuberculosis," said Morin.

There used to be several thousand bison in the area but disease in the last couple of years has cut the population down to just a few hundred animals.

"In the past three years 62 bison calves have been captured near Hook Lake and brought to a large corral near Fort Resolution," he said. The 22 calves that were captured this spring will be held for a year then released into a larger corral with 38 adults from previous captures, Morin added.

The Hook Lake Bison Recovery Project is the result of partnerships between the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, the Deninu Ku'e First Nation and the Metis Nation.

In the next five years there could be as many as 150 disease-free bison in corrals near Fort Resolution.

Frustration over funding

The Tl'oondih Healing Society in the Mackenzie Delta is looking for funding to run alcohol and drug programs. But getting a share of that money through the Inuvik Regional Health Board has not been easy, says Mackenzie Delta MLA David Krutko.

"Is there any possible way that we can basically try and find a way to downsize the regional bureaucracy?" asked Krutko last Tuesday in the legislature. "This is who is probably sucking up all the money.... Why is the bureaucracy taking so much money, yet no money is being allocated in the communities?"

Social Services Minister Kelvin Ng said he would look at the problem and report back to Krutko.

Krutko, however, was not satisfied with Ng's reply and asked the minister when he could try and resolve the problem and do an investigation on exactly why it is taking so long to resolve the problem.

Wildlife management a priority

Wildlife Minister Stephen Kakfwi announced a number of programs to take place in the coming months to monitor wolf populations in the Rennie Lake area.

Among them is an initiative between the GNWT and the World Wildlife Fund Canada to carry out additional research on wolves in the NWT. Department biologists are also analysing samples of hair and skin from wolves in the Rennie Lake area.

"This will assist in determining if there are distinct wolf populations on the barrens and if so, let us know which populations are being harvested," said Kakfwi.

A number of regional workshops involving harvesters, researchers and managers are also being planned.

This summer, fuel will be cached east of Great Slave Lake to allow officers to conduct more patrols in the area next winter.

"We are committed to ensuring long-term sustainable use of wildlife by Northerners. We are also committed to ensuring that wolves, like all our wildlife resources, remain an essential part of our cultural and economic well-being."