SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Last Thursday a public meeting to discuss the proposed Wildlife Act was held in Dettah, but not a single Dettah resident spoke.

Instead, representatives from the Yellowknife Shooting Club, the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, the NWT Wildlife Federation and the Metis-Dene Development Fund spoke, and all were critical of the plans.

Some major changes proposed include incorporating aboriginal and treaty rights into the act, changing age and residency requirements for hunting licences, increasing fines for offences and requiring wildlife management and monitoring plans for high impact developments.

"I say, who designed this? It's not my peers that created this act," Barry Taylor, an outfitter and president of the Yellowknife Shooting Club told the committee. "It's an embarrassment."

Since mid-April the standing committee of MLAs assigned to review it has been on a travelling road show across the territory to try and figure out how much of the 1978 NWT Wildlife Ordinance can be salvaged.

"Do we completely throw the baby out with the bathwater," Beaufort-Delta MLA David Krutko asked those gathered in Dettah, "or try and salvage what we can?"

Taylor, who has lived in the Northwest Territories for 45 years, said the revised act is poorly thought-out, incomprehensible and should have been formulated with more help from hunters, fishers and outfitters.

Within the act, children as young as 12 without a firearms licence or prior training are free to hunt as

long as they are supervised.

Meant to encourage traditional activities among young people, Taylor said it will put everyone in danger.

His main concern, which was echoed by other speakers, was that the act is trying to reinterpret land treaties.

"It's pitting one group against another," he told the committee.

"We want to bring the North together and unless you can get the North behind this act, it's a failure."

Kam Lake MLA David Ramsay, who chairs the committee, said they will listen to all sides before they formulate a report for the legislative assembly.

"We have a lot of ground yet to cover," he said.

Representing the Metis, Jake Heron admitted the task of creating a new Wildlife Act is formidable, but urged committee members to not give anyone a special status under the act.

"We just want to be treated the same as everybody else," he said.

Louis Covello of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines said the mining and exploration community has been under-consulted throughout the entire process and as one of the most heavily regulated areas in Canada, the NWT doesn't need another layer of red tape.

"The more land we have to explore, the more likely we are to find deposits," he said, adding that grassroots exploration is needed to keep the industry alive.

He said the chamber recognizes the importance of conservation of land and wildlife, and wants a stronger emphasis on sustainable development in the new act.

Written submissions regarding the proposed Wildlife Act will be accepted until June 10.

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