SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - After a year of no caribou, no new cabins, and a 100 per cent increase to the cost of a hunting licence, it was a testy bunch of outdoorsmen who gathered for the NWT Wildlife Federation's annual general meeting Saturday.

Gary Pirker, a Yellowknife hunter, speaks at the NWT Wildlife Federation's annual general meeting where he raised concerns over proposed changes to the NWT Wildlife Act. - Adrian Lysenko/NNSL photo Some proposed changes Reduced residency requirement for a resident hunting licence to one year from two. All first time applicants for a resident hunting licence would be required to take a hunter education course. Minimum age to obtain a big game hunting licence would be reduced to 14 years from 16 and to 12 years from 14 for a small game hunting licence. Maximum fines would be increased to $50,000 for individuals, $100,000 for corporations and $250,000 for commercial offences related to wildlife. Source: Department of Environment and Natural Resources

Their main target was the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR), which came to deliver a presentation on a proposed new Wildlife Act, in the making for more than 10 years.

Proposed amendments address longstanding complaints, such as reducing the residency period for new resident hunters to one year from two, and lower ages limits for hunters to 14 from 16 for big game, and to 12 from 14 for small game. Still, the 30 or so resident hunters who attended the meeting at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre expressed disappointment at the way the non-aboriginal hunting community has been treated by the government in recent years.

"The government is driving a wedge between the resident hunters and the aboriginals," said Martin Knutson, president of the federation.

"We've seen from the caribou hearing that ENR has no interest in listening to the resident hunter."

Yellowknifer hunter Gary Pirker told officials that the government doesn't appreciate what non-aboriginal hunters have to offer in terms of land and wildlife stewardship.

"The traditional lifestyle is not unique to the aboriginal," said Gary Pirker.

"We're not trying to take away from the aboriginal, we're losing our opportunity."

Gary Bohnet, deputy minister of Environment and Natural Resources, told his audience that his department often consults resident hunters, as it was doing at the meeting. He asked that if any of them had suggestions for the

Wildlife Act then they should make them.

"The new wildlife act has taken in consideration over the last 10, 15 years," said Bohnet.

"Some of the recommendations made by resident hunters and some made by other people."

Fred Sangris, former chief of Ndilo and co-ordinator for the caribou harvest for the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, who attended the meeting, said Yellowknives hunters will be mindful of the tenuous state of the Bathurst caribou herd this winter. The latest survey numbers, taken in 2009, put the herd size at 36,000 animals, down from 186,000 in 2006.

The Yellowknives have been alloted a quota of 150 caribou for this winter in an agreement reached with the territorial government last fall.

"This year we're going to do a community hunt but we're going to hunt to our own traditional practices which is only what you need," said Sangris.

"Right now we're encouraging Yellowknives Dene to only get two, three or four caribou maximum, that's it."

Many attending the meeting expressed an opinion that Environment and Natural Resources's caribou count is inaccurate. The Department was also criticized for not requiring the number of caribou taken in the aboriginal hunt to be reported, which, unlike the non-aboriginal hunt, won't be automatically mandatory.

"Count them, establish it, and if the numbers say we can't hunt then we can't hunt," said Pirker. "Stop managing people, get into the management of wildlife."

The act is expected to be introduced into the legislative assembly in March, after which may follow another round of consultations after being reviewed by MLAs.

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