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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The days of being able to drive down the winter road from Yellowknife to bag a caribou from the side of the highway are long gone - and show no sign of returning anytime soon.

Barry Taylor, seen here hunting barren ground caribou in 2009, says territorial government is discriminating against big game outfitters. - photo courtesy of Barry Taylor

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) recently announced it's considering a limited harvest of the Bluenose-East, Beverly and Ahiak caribou herds for resident, non-aboriginal hunters in time for 2013-2014 hunting season.

But the herd closest to Yellowknife, the Bathurst herd, isn't being considered as part of the proposal.

Michael Miltenberger, the minister of the department, doesn't see any possibility of a resident hunt returning for that herd until after 2016.

"The Bathurst was clearly the most harvested herd in the Northwest Territories," said Miltenberger. "There was enormous pressure on that herd because it was located in the most populated area of the Northwest Territories."

Miltenberger said the Bluenose-East, Beverly and Ahiak herds are healthy enough to sustain a one-bull per resident harvest, but the Bathurst herd still has a long way to go before his department considers opening it up to residents and non-residents.

All four herds are open to an aboriginal harvest, the aboriginal hunt of the Bathurst herd being restricted to 300 hunter tags per year.

The department plans on doing a full census of the Bathurst caribou by 2016, but Miltenberger said until then, it won't consider allowing a resident or sport hunt.

For Yellowknife-based big game outfitters, who used to depend on taking visitors on caribou hunts, the latest news is another nail in their coffin.

The Bluenose-East, Beverly, Ahiak and Bathurst herds have been closed to sport hunters since 2009 as part of emergency conservation measures.

But Gary Jaeb, president of True North Safaris, says the government numbers are based on faulty science, mainly, counting the Bathurst herd separately instead of combining it with other herds.

In 2009 the government requested an independent study on its research methods of caribou populations. The Alberta Research Council concluded ENR biologists needed to improve, but their data accurately reflected a decline in herd population.

Barry Taylor, owner of Arctic Safaris, said outfitters and residents had no impact on the population decline of the Bathurst herd, noting they only took three per cent of the total harvest.

"This is pure discrimination," Taylor said, "pure politics."

Jaeb wonders why the government doesn't seem to care about outfitters.

"Even though we brought money into the territory and supplied meat to the communities we're at the bottom of the totem pole," Jaeb said.

Miltenberger confirms non-resident hunters are not on the agenda yet.

"The aboriginal subsistence harvest is first priority, followed by resident, then commercial tags will be considered after those other groups are back in the harvesting business," Miltenberger said.

But for Jaeb and other outfitters, it's already too late. Many big game hunters now look outside of the Northwest Territories for their hunting trips.

A 2012-2013 GNWT tourism plan notes the Northwest Territories is losing its market share to Alaska and Nunavut because of the ban on barren-ground caribou.

Jaeb and other outfitters plan on holding town-hall style meetings to discuss the hunt. No meetings are scheduled yet but with the government's recent proposal, Jaeb says they'll have one soon.

Caribou herds in the NWT

Herd locations:

• The Bluenose-East herd is located northwest of
• Yellowknife, mainly around the Great Bear Lake region.
• The Beverly and Ahiak herds are to the east of Great Slave Lake, and into western Nunavut.
• The Bathurst herd is mostly to the north and east of Yellowknife and is the most accessible to Yellowknife hunters.

Herd populations:

• Bluenose-East: Estimated at 122,000 based on a 2010 survey and trend analysis since then, up from 66,200 in 2006
• Ahiak: Estimated at 83,300 in 2013, with no previous population studies
• Beverly: Estimated at 124,000 in 2013, last study in 1994 estimated herd at 276,000
• Bathurst: Estimated at 32,000 in 2012, down from 186,000 in 2003

Source: Department of Environment and Natural Resources

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