Metis support hunting ban
Minister pledges decisions will be made on Bathurst and Bluenose-East caribou by the end of leadership meetings
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, November 24, 2014
THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Another meeting of NWT leaders to discuss the Bathurst and Bluenose-East caribou herds is to be held in Yellowknife this Friday and by the end of that meeting, Environment and Natural Resources Minister Michael Miltenberger pledges decisions will be made on how to respond to the continued decline in the herds' populations.
The Nov. 28 meeting will be a follow-up to a meeting held Nov. 7 that failed to reach consensus after running out of time.
"Before the end of the day next Friday, the issue of what type of allocation there will be for the Bluenose-East will be decided and before the end of the day next Friday the issue of a ban on the Bathurst will be decided," Miltenberger told the NWT Metis Nation annual general assembly on Nov. 21. "We're looking for consensus, clearly."
Delegates unanimously passed a resolution calling on the GNWT to impose a total hunting ban on the Bathurst caribou herd, which has declined from 470,000 animals in 1986 to an estimated 15,000 this year.
Richard Mercredi of Fort Smith told Environment and Natural Resources Minister Michael Miltenberger that most Metis have voluntarily not hunted the caribou for five years.
"It may be even too late for the caribou," said Mercredi. "As far as we're concerned, there should be a total ban on hunting the caribou, because obviously people out there aren't responsible enough."
The minister said there is a real concern the Bathurst herd is possibly past the point of being able to survive as a stand-alone herd.
NWT Metis Nation President Garry Bailey will be attending the meeting on Friday.
"We're not in support of hunting the Bathurst herd," he said. "The decline is just too much."
The Bluenose-East herd is also declining in numbers.
