SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The GNWT wouldn't guarantee outfitters will have caribou tags next year at a tense three-hour meeting Thursday on the current state of the Bathurst caribou herd.

Members of the Barren Ground Caribou Outfitters Association met with GNWT officials to discuss possible changes to the Bathurst herd hunt.

Gary Bohnet, deputy minister for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said he wouldn't lie - it's possible, depending on the new five-year caribou management plan the government plans to unveil next year, that outfitters may lose out.

"We've got some very tough decisions to make," Bohnet said.

Barry Taylor, a Yellowknife outfitter, said if the government introduces a new plan where outfitter tags are cut back or eliminated he could be in financial trouble. Taylor said he starts preparing for next year some 12 to 18 months prior to the start of the season. If he and his hunting guide counterparts don't find out until early 2010 whether or not they have tags is unacceptable, he said.

"I want to market caribou," he said. "If we're a dead industry, tell me now so we can get out."

Bruno Croft, manager of research and monitoring for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said the number of breeding female caribou in transit to calving grounds is much lower than in the past.

"It's very alarming," Croft said, adding it's the second year in a row they are seeing this pattern.

When the last photo census was conducted in 2006, researchers found 46,000 breeding female caribou in transit. In 2007 the number declined to 28,000 and in 2008 the number dropped drastically to 8,000.

For Bohnet the solution to the current decline is simple.

"You either protect the herd or you lose it," he said, also addressing allegations the possible restriction on outfitters is politically motivated. "Those types of statements aren't going to help us move forward on this issue," said Bohnet.

Gary Jaeb, another local outfitter and one of the NWT's largest, said the inability to control resident and aboriginal harvesting makes outfitters an easy target for control. He added the $4-million industry brings jobs and money into the territory.

In his opening remarks, Bohnet said government representatives weren't there to debate the science, something outfitters John Andre and Boyd Warner both had issues with, due to the lack of tracking collars used and the absence of counts on the Ahiak herd. Warner believes the Ahiak and Bathurst to be the same herd and suggested renaming them Bathurst East and West.

Outfitter Margaret Peterson said the debate on science should be left to the classroom. "We really need to start moving towards solutions," she said. "We've got to protect them somehow. We have to ask ourselves what are we willing to do to save the Bathurst herd."

Bohnet said the final caribou numbers will be released by fall.