Environment Committee on May 7th, 2015

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Ms. Yonge, we have about 35 seconds if you can make a quick statement, please.

[Lynda Yonge]

We have been doing some work. All the work we've done about wolf population levels shows that they are declining along with the caribou levels, and we're working with our communities to see what's happening and to encourage wolf harvest through the trapping program.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Mr. McKay, go ahead, please.

[The Honourable John McKay, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you to the witnesses.

I don't know whether the witnesses, particularly those from Cabela's, know that we have among us a noted author, Mr. Sopuck. I just wondered whether your stores were carrying his book.

It's not as if I'm his agent and am prepared to promote his book, but I do get 10%.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[John McKay]

I did find Mr. Bevington's line of questioning quite interesting. There has been a dramatic drop-off. Is there evidence to say that previous cycles are such that the drop-off of the caribou species has ever been so precipitous?

[Evan Walz]

Thank you.

As Ms. Yonge alluded to earlier, we do see through traditional knowledge that there is a cycle to this, typically of between 30 and 50 years.

There certainly is a cycle. We have seen something like this in the past. Traditional knowledge tells us that this has happened in the past.

Does that help answer your question?

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

It does, but drilling down a little deeper than that, I'm assuming you have examined the herd, possibly even carcasses, and things of that nature. Is there any one thing that stands out? Is it a disease? Is it changes in vegetation, changes in predation? What is your analysis for such a drop?

[Evan Walz]

There is no one factor that stands out head and shoulders above the rest. The same factors exist. As Lynda mentioned earlier, we certainly don't blame the decline on harvesting, but what often happens is that as the herd declines, hunters are able to get at the herd with modern technology.

We also see that we're not alone in this. If you look at the circumpolar world, there are a number of herds that are in the same difficult situation, perhaps not as acutely as we see in the Bathurst herd, but this happening everywhere in North America.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

If it is a circumpolar issue, it would kind of drive you, at least intuitively, to the notion that climate change is affecting the herd, because the Arctic is warming and the sub-Arctic is warming with it, and species that have never been observed there are moving north. Is that a reasonable conclusion?

[Evan Walz]

Given that it's happening in other areas in North America, it certainly suggests there's something larger at play here.

Lynda, do you want to provide any detail beyond that?

[Lynda Yonge]

Yes. We don't know what drives these cycles. We do think there is a climatic factor, as Evan has said. Climate change may be a factor, but climate change may also be a positive factor in that green-up is happening earlier. We don't know what the balance of the changes with climate change will be. It's certainly something we're looking at and monitoring.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

It's quite curious.

According to your observations, are there other species that experience such dramatic changes in composition, possibly not quite as dramatic as for the caribou, that have happened over relatively short periods of time?

[Lynda Yonge]

We haven't documented any changes like that. I did mention that we are seeing new species moving up, but we haven't yet seen drastic changes in any of our other species populations.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

I think I read somewhere that the grizzly population was moving north and actually interbreeding with polar bears. I don't know whether that's an observation within your sphere of observation, but I thought that was kind of curious. Is that true or is that not true?

[Lynda Yonge]

We have seen grizzly bears breeding with polar bears. According to Inuvialuit traditional knowledge, that's not new. Some of the hybrids we're seeing now are third and fourth generation.

There have always been grizzly bears that far north. There may be more of them, but it may also be that we are seeing them because we are more mobile and covering more area, but certainly they are interbreeding with polar bears.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

What about any other species—wolves, coyotes, that kind of thing?

[Lynda Yonge]

We haven't seen any. There's nothing documented yet in terms of hybridization.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Your licensing regime, I assume, is entirely internal to the Northwest Territories. Is that correct?

[Evan Walz]

Perhaps you could explain what you mean by internal to the Northwest Territories.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Well, when you issue licences for hunting, and presumably for fishing as well, are they exclusively for the NWT?

[Evan Walz]

Yes.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

What role, if any, does the federal government play in the issuance of licences or the management of any of these herds? I'm a little puzzled as to what role the federal government plays, given that there is a fairly substantial devolution of jurisdiction to the NWT.

[Evan Walz]

Recently there has been a devolution of authority to the NWT. However, the only real element of licensing in this area that the federal government is still involved in is for migratory birds. Licences for big game and small game are issued by the Northwest Territories government, and we administer fishing licences as well on behalf of the federal government.