Environment committee  Not normally. I of course represent the people of the Northwest Territories on HAAP, so that is my connection to the federal government. As you're probably aware, almost all wildlife management in Canada is done at the provincial level, so I have much contact with the Government of the Northwest Territories when it comes to wildlife management policies and practices there.

Environment committee  If I had a wish list, number one on my list would be that somehow the federal government could entrench the right for non-aboriginals to hunt and fish and trap in Canada. I really think if we could do that, so that we knew that right could never be trampled on as long as there were harvestable, sustainable populations out there, we would eliminate this polarization, with this being all the way over here and the rest all the way over there: pro-trapping and hunting, anti-hunting, animal rights.

Environment committee  We have already talked about how almost every hunter belongs to some kind of conservation organization and puts money on the ground to try to improve habitat. I have been president of different conservation organizations, and lots of times we are handcuffed by government bureaucracies that won't....

Environment committee  As an outfitting industry, one of the biggest obstacles we face is—and I see it probably as a little bit of a plan by some people in power—the restriction my clients from the United States or somewhere else in the world face in transporting wildlife home. It gets a little more difficult every year.

Environment committee  For aboriginal communities, especially, it would be devastating to their local economies. Our aboriginal communities are trying to learn to live in a modern society. Most of the kids today don't have a really close connection to the land because they live in a village, not on the land.

Environment committee  It's a sad tale. I don't know if anybody today fully understands why the caribou are in such serious decline, but they are, definitely.

Environment committee  It's interesting, because NWT caribou biologists and traditional knowledge both tell us that a massive, massive fluctuation in caribou numbers is the norm. They have seen this before. The traditional knowledge of the aboriginals tells of years where there were no caribou, no caribou, no caribou—and then they came back.

Environment committee  It's part of it. Caribou are a very complex species, but where you are talking about, up on the Alaska coast, the Porcupine herd is in full recovery. The numbers are on the increase. The Carmacks herd in the Yukon that was almost hunted into extinction in the gold rush a hundred years ago has made a great recovery.

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  Absolutely.

Environment committee  I couldn't agree with you more but I also think we need to find a balance in all areas of Canada, not just in the north, because the Yukon also has co-management boards. I think we need to have a balanced system of management where it's government, science, and traditional and local knowledge.

Environment committee  I don't disagree with the expansion of the park. I disagree with the idea that, especially in northern remote regions, we eliminate hunting from those parks. Minister Aglukkaq agrees with me. At the next HAAP meeting she plans to have Parks Canada there to talk about this, because she feels that it is the right of Canadians like me to hunt and fish.

Environment committee  Yes. Africa has a little bit different social environment, economic environment from Canada. But when you take away the value of wildlife to the people who live on the land, especially in a place like rural Canada where animals raid crops and stuff, if there is no value in that wildlife to the person, if it's blanket protection—you're not allowed to use that animal for anything—then why would that person feed those deer or those elk?

Environment committee  No, absolutely not. In the Northwest Territories, you're right; our association, AMMO, has had a scholarship program. We have actually helped send many of those people to school, encouraging them to get involved. I really believe that the system in the Northwest Territories, bringing those people into the programs, is a wonderful part.

Environment committee  But still, they learn. Once they get in these programs and they see that they have a career, and it's a career that they have an interest in, they do very well.