SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The legislative assembly's gallery was uncharacteristically packed on Thursday as more than 70 people from Ndilo and Dettah were on hand when the territorial government was urged to hold an emergency meeting with aboriginal groups about the bathurst caribou hunting ban.

Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya tabled a motion recommending the GNWT "consider their consultative process and come to an agreement considering caribou."

The assembly postponed a vote on the motion until Monday.

The hunting ban went into effect Jan. 1. Dene chiefs have opposed the ban, arguing it violates their treaty right to hunt.

Environment and Natural Resources Minister Michael Miltenberger has been bombarded with daily questions by MLAs since the legislative assembly resumed on Jan. 28. Most inquiries have centred around the status of consultations with the Dene leaders and the minister's authority to impose the emergency hunting ban in the first place.

On Thursday, David Krutko, Mackenzie Delta MLA, said the government should have taken steps to protect the Bathurst herd from industrial development in their calving ground.

"Why do we have a Department of Environment that allowed this to happen in the first place?" he said. "At the 11th hour they show up with a sledgehammer and say, sorry, we have to stop you guys from hunting today because the herd disappeared. Where did it go?"

He wasn't the only MLA to argue something had to be done to rectify the tension between the aboriginal groups and the GNWT.

Jane Groenewegen, Hay River South MLA, said she hoped the government would "explore every option possible to avoid a standoff, a gridlock, or an all-out legal battle."

Nahendeh MLA Kevin Menicoche said if the conflict resulted in legal action, the aboriginal groups would likely win.

"The minister is challenging our inherent right to hunt and fish. We're going to go to court, we're going to win," he said.

Miltenberger, who has repeatedly said conserving caribou necessitated emergency action, defended his decision.

"We can fill the room with lawyers and technical staff and we can have the debate about are we a duly constituted government, do we have that authority. I suggest to you that clearly we do," he said.

Though Miltenberger acknowledged "the Yellowknives did not approve or support the ban when it was initiated," he said consultations with the Dene are ongoing.

When the legislature adjourned, Dene leaders and community members appeared deflated and frustrated about the lack of resolution.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Bill Erasmus shrugged his shoulders and called the way the territorial government was handling the caribou issue sad.

"One thing you don't do, it's take people's food," he said. "It's cruel to say it's a conservation issue ... It depends on how you set up the herds. We didn't draw these lines or name these herds," he said.

"I don't believe they're close (to a resolution) at all, he's just saying that," he said of Miltenberger's insistence that discussions are ongoing.

The Assembly of First Nations is holding a public meeting tonight (Feb. 8) in Yellowknife to discuss the dispute.