HAY RIVER - A "manifesto" from a group of resident hunters in Hay River rejects any suggestion resident hunting significantly contributes to declining populations of barrenland caribou.

Seven resident hunters in Hay River - including, left to right, Wayne Keefe, Wade Haley and Jim Maysenhoelder – have sent a manifesto of their concerns about caribou hunting to the GNWT. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

"Nothing could be further from the truth," their statement reads. "The resident hunting quota is estimated to be less than five per cent of the total annual caribou harvest."

It said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources estimates the annual harvest at 11,000 caribou, and last year resident hunters took about 150 barren ground caribou.

"The purpose of the document is to say that we feel we are consistently at the bottom of the barrel," said Wayne Keefe, one of seven resident hunters who signed the manifesto.

"Why is five per cent of the harvest insinuated as being 100 per cent of the problem?" Keefe wondered.

Jim Maysenhoelder, another signatory, said reducing quotas for resident hunters has no impact.

"It's not going to bring back the herd," he said.

The document has been sent to Michael Miltenberger, the minister of environment and natural resources.

Miltenberger rejects the hunters' suggestion they take a disproportionate amount of blame for the caribou decline.

"It's unfortunate if they somehow think they've been singled out," he said.

A resident hunter is someone who has lived in the NWT for at least two years and has a quota when harvesting caribou.

Miltenberger said there are a multitude of intertwining and complicated possible reasons for the caribou population decline, including hunting pressures, climate change, invasive species resource development and more. The minister said even First Nations, Metis and Inuvialuit with treaty and/or inherent rights to hunt caribou don't have completely uncontrolled access to caribou because of such things as co-management boards.

"The circumstances we're in across the North have resulted in all sorts of restrictions for all hunters," he said.

Miltenberger said while there are aboriginal rights to harvest caribou, a more fundamental issue is preservation of wildlife.

According to the minister, resident hunters can each take two caribou a year.

However, he said the government will be announcing "significant" new restrictions for all hunters before Christmas on the Bathurst caribou herd, and the restrictions will come into effect on Jan. 1.

While noting the number of animals taken by resident hunters is not large, Miltenberger said it still has an impact.

The hunters have a different view.

"If we could be so bold as to suggest to the responsible minister to increase and maintain the resident quota to at least four animals, bulls or cows," they stated in their manifesto. "We believe the end effect on the caribou populations would be insignificant compared to the overall harvest."

Miltenberger will respond in writing to the Hay River resident hunters in the next few weeks.

The resident hunters stated a number of other concerns.

While recognizing subsistence hunting is important in remote communities, they said some mass harvests in the NWT kill thousands of caribou annually.

They called for sound management of all caribou hunting and for the government to verify the accuracy of caribou population counts.