Jason Unrau
Northern News Services
Friday, February 23, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister Brendan Bell faced tough questions in the legislative assembly last week over what steps his department plans to take for barren ground outfitters whose businesses are in jeopardy from cuts and potential further cuts to caribou tag limits.

"I think it's quite irresponsible of the minister of ITI to suggest he's going to sit around and wait until what happens with Wek'eezhi (Renewable Resources Board)," said Range Lake MLA Sandy Lee.

"The minister of ENR has said that the quota we're looking at is 350 next year and I'm telling you that will be the end of the industry. It is now incumbent on (Bell) to tell us what he's going to do."

In December, the department of Environment and Natural Resources -- acting on its 2006 Bathurst caribou census, which showed more than a 70 per cent population decline since 1986 - cut outfitters' tag limits in half.

While ENR has recommended to the Wek'eezhii Renewable Resources Board (WRRB) that outfitters' tags be slashed to 350 from 1,559 in the interim, the natural resources department decided to allow 750 for the 2007 hunting season.

The WRRB was created under the 2005 Tlicho land claim and self-government agreement and oversees renewable resources issues in the 39,000 square kilometre Tlicho region.

According to Bell, his department will fund an independent consultant to assist the Barren Ground Outfitters Association with its presentation to the WRRB.

The minister added that while he shares the outfitters' opinion that the business can be conducted sustainably without threatening the viability of the herd, the government position is that aboriginal subsistence hunting "has to take precedence over outfitting."

"For Ms. Lee to suggest 350 (tags) is a fait accompli, that's disingenuous," said Bell of ENR's recommendation to the WRRB, adding his department is doing everything it can for outfitters. "If it weren't for the intervention of ITI the (outfitters') tag limit would've been 350 this year."

Bell went on to say that ITI was looking at how to address a number of scenarios; including supplying diversification assistance, financial compensation or, in a worst-case scenario where no outfitters tags are permitted for 2008, a bail-out.

"In terms of next year's tags, the situation is very much in flux," he said. "Clearly we need reasonable tag limits and we need to do much better on the numbers and knowing what the total harvest is."