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Shelved Wildlife Act welcome news to some

Nathalie Heiberg-Harrison and Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, August 29, 2011

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The shelving of the Wildlife Act in the legislative assembly last week came as welcome news to the Dene Nation.

"We're really pleased that it was withdrawn. We had some major concerns that aboriginal rights, treaty rights, were going to be infringed upon," said Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus. "I don't think the territorial government realized how complicated it is because with the many regions we have, some have settled claims, their agreements are not all the same. It's very complicated, trying to put that into a piece of legislation takes a lot of time and a lot of energy."

He said the legislation would have infringed on aboriginal rights and the government committee should have started consulting with communities sooner, Erasmus said.

"People in Fitzgerald who are just on the other side of the Alberta border, who are part of the Dene Nation, would not be able to hunt in the North because they're not residents, but they do have treaty rights and the courts have established that if they have a treaty right, they can hunt," he said. "There was no room for amendment there, so we would have had some big problems. The way this legislation was drawn up, it would have allowed the minister to restrict our people from hunting caribou, moose, beaver, deer, muskox and so on, without our people's consent, and there's no way we could agree to that."

Wayne Keefe, Hay River director of the NWT Wildlife Federation, was also relieved the Wildlife Act did not pass.

"We believe the minister did the right thing in shelving this act," said Keefe.

He said he was not aware of all of the proposed changes because so much was done behind closed doors.

"I think that was part of what caused a lot of the tension," he said.

The act needs to be a reflection of all peoples of the NWT, said Keefe, a resident hunter.

"I think the act did not adequately reflect the values of wildlife management for non-aboriginal people, as well as some aboriginal groups," he said.

In addition, he said it appears the territorial government is promoting turning as much of the NWT as possible into protected areas or parkland.

"If tourism is the primary aim over and above all else, such as economic development, then I believe the GNWT has to clearly convey this mandate to the people of the NWT," he said. "I don't think they're being very clear about that."

The government should start over again with a consultation process because the act was so significantly flawed that it would be hard to proceed with amendments only, Keefe added.

The proposed act was too politicized, he said.

"It's more about managing people than it is about managing wildlife."

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