Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 19th, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you very much, Mr. Ritchie. I think you heard it several times, but we wish you all the best on your birthday today. What a delight to have you here on such a special day.

Thank you, Mr. Kruger, for really coming, as I understand it, at the last minute. We do appreciate the views of the 33 smaller communities--or communities in general--across the Northwest Territories.

Members, we'll be resuming here at precisely 1 p.m. We'll hopefully be back down here about five or ten minutes early. We'll see you then.

The meeting is suspended until that time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Welcome back, members, witnesses, and guests. We are resuming our consideration of the economic development of Canada's north. We're glad to welcome several witnesses this afternoon who represent the industry side of the equation here in so many ways, as I'm sure you will hear in a moment.

I first want to tell members that we have been successful in moving one of the planned witnesses for this panel to the next. We were organized for five witnesses in this panel, and only two were organized for the next, so Mr. Noseworthy from the Northwest Territories Community Futures Association will be coming in the next hour and a half. I believe we have one witness from Nogha Enterprises who is yet to arrive. If he arrives in the course of our discussions we'll accommodate him, of course. That leaves us with three presentations for this panel, which means we can give our witnesses here today who are presenting a bit more than the anticipated five minutes. That five minutes was premised on there being five witnesses today. So we can give you a bit more time, but no more than ten. Customarily we open with presentations, one presentation from each organization represented here today, and then we go to questions from members. I'll give you a bit more briefing material on that.

Without any further ado, let's begin by welcoming Mr. John Kearney, the chairman, and also Mr. Alan Taylor, the COO for Canadian Zinc Corporation.

I understand, Mr. Kearney, you're going to lead off. Go ahead with your presentation, sir.

[John F. Kearney, Chairman, Canadian Zinc Corporation]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.

As the chairman indicated, I am chairman and chief executive of Canadian Zinc Corporation. I'm also the president of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines. I'm a director of the Mining Association of Canada and a member of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. With me today is my colleague, Alan Taylor, who is the chief operating officer of Canadian Zinc Corporation.

I would like to thank the committee for this opportunity and invitation to present to you today on our impressions and our perspectives on mine development in the north.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

One thing I forgot to add is that we are doing simultaneous interpretation as we go, so don't feel under any pressure to speed up your presentation. In fact it works a little better if it's at a little slower pace than you normally go; that really helps our interpreters.

Please go ahead.

[John F. Kearney]

Thank you.

Canadian Zinc owns the Prairie Creek lead-zinc-silver mine in the Northwest Territories in the Mackenzie Mountains. This is a unique situation, a unique project, in that the mine was built 30 years ago. It's 30 years old, but it's brand-new. It has never operated. Like many other projects, that's a colourful story, but it's not a story for today. Let me just say today that Prairie Creek is a major Canadian resource.

The mine is not in production, and why not? I regret to say this is largely because of the current regulatory and permitting regime that exists in the Northwest Territories today.

When the mine was built in 1980-82, it was fully permitted, but unfortunately those permits lapsed, and when the new Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act came in in 2000, we had to reapply for permits under the new process. Since 2001 we have successfully obtained seven permits for exploration and development, and various aspects of that project have been the subject of five different environmental assessments, all of which recommended that the project, or the aspects of the project, be allowed to go ahead. We're not yet there, but we are getting closer.

In June of last year we applied for the operating permits to put the mine into production, but we still expect a lengthy process. In October 2008 we signed important MOUs with aboriginal first nations in the community. These represented agreements to cooperate for mutual benefit.

Members of the committee will be well aware that in June of this year, 2009, both houses of Parliament unanimously passed an act to amend the National Parks Act to expand Nahanni National Park. The MP for Western Arctic, Mr. Bevington, spoke on that resolution in the House.

The new act expanded Nahanni National Park. It completely surrounds the Prairie Creek mine, but the mine itself has been excluded from the park and is not part of the park. And most importantly from our perspective, the National Parks Act was amended to provide that the minister could grant leases or licences to provide access through the park to the Prairie Creek mine area.

For many years, that unresolved land use policy issue had delayed the undertaking of the Prairie Creek project, but I'm glad to say that the resolution of the policy issues has now eliminated that problem. So Canadian Zinc, and indeed the entire Canadian mining industry, supports a balanced approach to resource development and conservation, which allows both for resource development and for preservation and protection of the environment.

Our mine will provide tremendous economic stimulus to the region of the Northwest Territories. It's a unique opportunity. Indeed, it's probably the only opportunity in the Dehcho region to strengthen and enhance the social and economic well-being of the surrounding communities. The mine will employ about 220 people. It will run for about 20 years. We're targeting a northern employment of about 40% and then a first nation employment of about 25%, minimum.

Mining has always been the economic driver for the economy of the Northwest Territories. We would suggest to you that mining has created and paid for most of the major infrastructure in the Northwest Territories: roads, rail, hydro, and indeed the very city of Yellowknife itself. We would ask, where would the Northwest Territories be without mining?

But mining today in the Northwest Territories is threatened. Mines are finite. They run out and they do not last forever. The diamond mines, which are making a huge contribution to the current economy of the Northwest Territories, are probably past their peak years.

Mineral exploration is the lifeblood of the industry. Unfortunately, throughout Canada in 2009, mineral exploration is way down. According to the figures published by Natural Resources Canada, there is a 44% decline, but in the Northwest Territories the reduction is a staggering 81% down, year over year, from $148 million spent in 2008 to only an estimated $29 million this year.

In the mining industry we operate in the global world. Investment capital is very mobile. It will go where it gets the best reward at the least risk, but risk includes not just project or price risk, but also environmental and social risk. Canada now needs to compete for the investment dollars, and there can be no certainty that there will be a future in the Canadian mining industry that will attract global investment capital. So to win the battle or the competition for investment dollars, to make Canada and the Northwest Territories an attractive place for investment in mining, we need to eliminate barriers to entry.

We cannot change the geology. We cannot put minerals in the ground, but we can reduce the barriers to entry, and two of those in the Northwest Territories are land access and permitting.

Unfortunately, in recent years the NWT has gotten a reputation as a difficult place to gain land access for exploration or to get permits for mining or to get them within a reasonable timeframe. There is a significant challenge to permitting in the Northwest Territories. Our fear is that if there's no improvement, mining capital will go elsewhere, because the timelines are too long, there's no certainty. And nobody will get the benefit of the resources that are undoubtedly here.

In this presentation what we have sought to demonstrate is that development of the Prairie Creek mine will offer many benefits to the aboriginal communities, to the Northwest Territories, and to Canada, but the successful development of our mine needs the active support of government and of political leaders. Support is needed in improving the regulatory permitting regime; in upgrading infrastructure, education and training, and social programs; and in assisting the aboriginal communities to avail themselves of the many business opportunities.

We would suggest that the Northwest Territories needs a northern development vision, a northern development strategy, and a broad infrastructure plan including both transport and power. And indeed, land-access arrangements must be quickly agreed with first nations. The mining industry will play its part, but government must play the leading role.

Finally, gentlemen, perhaps most importantly, development of Canadian Zinc's Prairie Creek mine needs the active participation of all levels of government in providing political support and encouragement and in delivering a very simple message, a message that needs to be heard, and thankfully doesn't cost any money; it's just a message. That message is that we strongly support northern economic development and we support the development of the Prairie Creek mine. We would ask the standing committee to help ensure that message is heard.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you, Mr. Kearney. We appreciate that.

We'll now go to Mr. Balsillie, chairman of Dezé Energy Corporation, and Mr. Grabke, the managing director.

Mr. Balsillie, I understand you're presenting today. The same rules apply, and we welcome your presentation now.

[Donald Balsillie, Chairman, Dezé Energy Corporation]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Bonjour.

Edlanet'e. That's language from my region here within Akaitcho. It's Chipewyan. It's “How are you doing?” Welcome to the Akaitcho territory.

Once again, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for inviting us to speak with you today on a topic of great relevance to us. We will take a bit of time to share some of our experiences with trying to develop a major infrastructure project in Canada's north.

In order to give you a first-hand account of development in the north, I'll start by telling the committee a little bit about who we are and what our project will accomplish in terms of broad and specific benefits. Then I will highlight a couple of key barriers that preclude economic development in the Northwest Territories. I think you will come to agree that our project is a stepping stone to sustainable economic development in Canada's north and is indeed part of the solution. This committee can play an important role in communicating the benefits of this project to your federal counterparts to ensure that this incredible opportunity and others like it receive the support they deserve.

About the Taltson hydroelectric expansion project, the project proponent is the Dezé Energy Corporation. Dezé is a unique collaboration, a Northwest Territories corporation owned equally by the Akaitcho Energy Corporation, the Métis Energy Corporation Limited, and the NWT Corporation 03 Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Northwest Territories Hydro Corporation of the Government of the Northwest Territories, which is a crown corporation.

The existing Taltson Twin Gorges facility, owned and operated by the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, is located on the Taltson River, approximately 56 km northeast of Fort Smith, just south of us, and approximately 285 km southeast of Yellowknife. The Taltson project would install a new stand-alone plant of 36 megawatts and up to 56 megawatts of energy, in proximity to the existing plant at the Twin Gorges of the Taltson River, and a 700-kilometre transmission line into the Slave geological province.

The Taltson project would supply clean hydroelectric power to the diamond mines in the Northwest Territories and provide a long-term revenue source to the project partners. Prospective power customers include three operating and one proposed diamond mine. Diavik, owned by Rio Tinto, Ekati, owned by BHP Billiton, and Snap Lake Mine, owned by DeBeers, are operational, while Gahcho Kué, principally owned by DeBeers, is a proposed project for the near future.

As a northern-owned and majority-owned aboriginal partnership, Dezé Energy is guided by the fundamental principle of respect for the protection of the environment, traditional sites, and activities of the aboriginal people of this particular region. The project benefits include that the project would be very beneficial to the Northwest Territories, with the potential to extend the life of the existing diamond mines, make future developments more environmentally responsible, and ensure economic benefits stay in the north for the benefit of northerners.

The project is economic, will spur further development in the Slave geological province, and will be a tremendous boost for the northern economy. It will spur 500 to 700 direct jobs, 230 indirect jobs, and 250-plus induced employments during a three-year construction period; produce long-term revenues to public sector and aboriginal government shareholders; and extend existing mines in the diamond reserves through reduced operating costs. There are also substantial environmental benefits from the Taltson expansion project: 100 million litres or 280 cubic tonnes of carbon dioxide carbons in GHG emissions will be reduced annually; it has a small incremental footprint on the previously developed river system; it is sustainable green energy, with a life expectancy of approximately 50-plus years; it will optimize renewable resources, with no additional flooding.

An extended life of the diamond mines means substantial tax revenues and economic stimulus for all levels of government in the region--for example, $1.1 billion GDP annually to the Northwest Territories over the last two years. The Northwest Territories GDP doubled between 1998 and 2004 as a result of the diamond development. And the federal resource royalties have been between $19 million and $147 million annually since 2002.

This particular economic development is much needed, Mr. Chairman, in our southern part of the territory. You take a look at what has been happening in the north in terms of oil and gas development, and the potential for ongoing development in that area is west of us. You take a look at the hardrock industry, which is north and east of us, and a little bit west. Those particular areas have been receiving a lot of attention and a lot of development has occurred over the last number of years. In our particular part of our region, there is renewable energy that we can utilize with very little impact and help the hardrock industry to continue developing for many years in the future. So it's a much-needed economic stimulus for our particular communities within the Akaitcho and the South Slave.

Mr. Chairman, our project is a stepping stone to removing three key barriers to sustainable economic development in the north. They include a lack of sustainable energy infrastructure, the high cost of energy and need to reduce environmental impacts on fossil fuel consumption, and the need to generate sustainable economic development from non-renewable resource development. All of these barriers present significant and lasting obstacles to economic development in the north that the Taltson project will help to address.

All these benefits will be derived at a brownfield site next to an existing power plant that will optimize—it's currently underutilized in the river system—and generate hydro power and displace diesel generation at the diamond mines in the Slave geological province. BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and DeBeers all maintain a significant presence in the NWT and consume approximately 40% of the electricity now being consumed in the north. Because of the remote locations, they had no choice but to rely on mine-site diesel generation. The Taltson expansion project presents an incredible opportunity to change that. The project has the potential to generate long-term revenues from resource development, to create huge environmental benefits, and to ensure that future economic development can occur in a sustainable, cost-effective fashion.

Mr. Chairman, just to add to that, if you're not already aware, there's a lot of discussion in the north and a lot of concern with the declining of the caribou herds. There's a substantial decline in the last number of years. There's a lot of discussion about how governments and other stakeholders in the north are going to address this issue. This is a project that we feel is going to contribute in a positive fashion to ensuring that the environment is taken care of and that we're eliminating the burning of fossil fuels.

As you're well aware, whenever fossil fuels are being burned, deposits do fall on the ground, and in turn are taken up by animals such as the caribou. And we do believe that if they're eating such a food source out there that contains contaminants, it may be a contributing factor. We as developers believe this particular project is going to be a very positive step forward.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Okay. We're just about on time there now. If there are some parts remaining, Mr. Balsillie, you might be able to incorporate those points into some other responses. Did you want to take a short moment just to sum up, then?

[Donald Balsillie]

Basically, Mr. Chairman, our project is one we have been working on for a number of years, and we've expended quite a substantial amount of money, in the neighbourhood of $13 million to date. We're currently in the regulatory process. We're hoping that within the regulatory process, by the spring, we'll have basically gone through the approval process and the permitting for our project in the summer of 2010. Construction starts shortly thereafter. So we thank the committee for hearing our presentation, and we do look for your political support where it's need--very much so.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Very well. Thank you, Mr. Balsillie.

Now we'll go to Mr. Hugh Wilson, who is the vice-president, environment and community affairs, for Tyhee Development Corporation.

I notice our fourth presenter has joined us, Mr. Gilbert Cazon, and we'll get to his presentation just after Mr. Wilson's.

Let's begin, then, with Mr. Wilson, for up to about eight minutes or so. That would be great, Mr. Wilson. Please proceed.

[Hugh Wilson, Vice-President, Environment and Community Affairs, Tyhee Development Corporation]

Thank you.

First of all, I'd like to thank the committee for allowing me to make a presentation. My name is Hugh Wilson. I'm vice-president of environment and community affairs for Tyhee NWT Corp., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tyhee Development Corp. We are developing a small gold project about 90 kilometres north of Yellowknife, adjacent to the historic Discovery Mine, which some of you may be familiar with.

Today I'd basically like to highlight some of the other information that is being presented through consultation with various department people, and I refer to the McCrank report on the northern regulatory improvement initiative, which covered a broad range of issues, including the environment and aboriginal issues. I'd like to reiterate some of those issues that I think are applicable today.

The first issue I'd like to talk about is clarification of the requirements for aboriginal consultation. The need to bring clarity to the issue of community consultation in relation to resource development proposals in the NWT grow stronger each year. If left unresolved, this issue will continue to deepen divisions within the northern community and lead to unnecessary litigation. If that is the case, there will be a profound negative effect on the new mineral exploration activities that are necessary to ensure that new ore bodies are discovered to replace the existing diamond mining operations, two of which have already reached the midpoint of their proposed lifespan.

What we recommended in relation to the McCrank report was that the federal government give the highest priority to developing and implementing a policy that will clarify its own role, the role of proponents, and the role of the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act boards in relation to responding to the requirements of aboriginal consultation under the MVRMA, which definitely addresses the requirements for consultation and accommodation under the common law. The preparation of a detailed manual of aboriginal consultation procedures and accommodation policies should form part of this initiative.

The next recommendation was to develop a policy for impact and benefit agreements. Impact and benefit agreements continue to present significant challenges for proponents, communities, and regulators alike. The recommendation we made was that the federal government should develop immediately an official policy on the scope, nature, and purpose of impact and benefit agreements in the NWT that reflects an appropriate division of responsibility between government and proponents for the consequences of mineral resource development projects on northern communities. The policy should clarify the role played by impact and benefit agreements in the context of the overall process for the assessment, approval, and regulation of mineral resource developments. As an add-on, I'd say that the policy should consider the scale of any new or proposed project.

The next one I'd like to highlight is the recommendation to ensure adequate capacity and appropriate expertise. The dedication and diligence that members of the MVRMA boards bring to the discharge of their duties are well recognized. Nonetheless, significant concerns have been expressed as to how well government has fulfilled its obligation to ensure that the best-qualified individuals are appointed to board positions and that each appointee receives the necessary instructions and training in order to properly fulfill his or her responsibilities.

The recommendation we made was that the federal government establish a comprehensive process to identify, in concert with aboriginal groups, the appropriate candidates for appointments to MVRMA boards; develop a curriculum for instruction to ensure that appointees have the knowledge and understanding required to discharge their respective responsibilities under the legislation and in keeping with applicable overarching principles of law; verify the state of readiness of each candidate before board appointments, to confirm the candidate's capacity to discharge the applicable responsibilities; implement an ongoing program to ensure that board members have the benefit of further training and instruction to expand their knowledge and expertise, taking into account significant legal, technical, and other developments that may impact the MVRMA process.

There are a couple of other ones that I'll just go into on the next point.

The next point is to establish an independent body to support northern boards. Experience suggests that a program of the kind described above will not be possible in the absence of specifically dedicated or focused resources.

The recommendation was that the federal government establish an independent permanent body having a broadly defined mandate to oversee the process outlined in the previous section that I just read. This body should be established on a pan-boreal basis and serve all the boards established in all three territories.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Would you like to wrap up, Mr. Wilson?

[Hugh Wilson]

The other thing I wanted to bring forward is that there is a definite need to finalize land claims in the NWT. I think the committee should seriously think about moving forward in that area, because we have found that it's a little bit easier to work in areas where the land claims have been settled.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Just to be clear, the recommendations you were citing were recommendations you provided during the McCrank consultations. Did I hear that correctly?

[Hugh Wilson]

Yes, that's correct. I can refer to a letter dated February 28. It was addressed to Neil McCrank and it was copied to all and sundry, of course--to the ministers, and so on.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Would it be possible for you to provide a copy of that letter?

[Hugh Wilson]

I could provide it after the meeting.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

As a follow-up, that might be helpful.

Thank you, Mr. Wilson.

Now we'll go to our final witness, who is certainly the last but not the least. We'll go to Mr. Gilbert Cazon.

Gilbert is the acting general manager for Nogha Enterprises Limited. The opening presentation should be five to eight minutes, if you could, and following your presentation we will be going to questions from members. We'll give you a brief explanation of how that works after your presentation.

Go ahead, Mr. Cazon.

[Gilbert Cazon, Acting General Manager, Nogha Enterprises Limited]

I would like to thank the committee and the chair for allowing me to do this presentation. I represent Nogha Enterprises. I was just newly appointed. I have been with Nogha Enterprises since 1986--

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

One thing I should have added is that we are doing simultaneous interpretation as we go. Don't feel under any pressure to go too quickly; we'll give you enough time. A reading pace that seems to you probably a little bit slower than normal would be just about right.

Go ahead.

[Gilbert Cazon]

Okay.

Hi. My name is Gilbert Cazon, and I'm representing Nogha Enterprises. Nogha Enterprises is an economic development arm of the Liidlii Kue First Nation, which is essentially located in the heart of the Deh Cho. In English, it's Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories.

Nogha stands for wolverine in South Slavey. We chose that animal because Nogha is an economic development company of a band, and for us an animal of that importance is big recognition to our company. That's one of the things that we try to do. We try to speak for the things that can't speak for themselves by representing and doing things in an ethical way that would sustain them, to sustain us, to sustain longevity for our people. So that's the approach I will be taking right from the ground up.

I missed some of the presentations, but I believe that's why I'm here: it's for the barriers and solutions to economic development. I've just been in this office for probably about three weeks, and I'm just catching up to speed with a lot of stuff, so I might be a little bit shaky. I might miss a few things, but I am hoping that you get my message.

We do need help, we need support, and anything that you can do down in Ottawa to help us up here would be great. We also need people to work together. We need a person from Ottawa to work with a person from the north. I'm constantly meeting. Every time there's a mega-opportunity or there's an opportunity or there's a resource that you want, we should be meeting on a regular basis so that we're working together.

To show that to the first nation groups would show them a lot. They would work with that, because right now a lot of people are approaching first nation groups for opportunities. First nation groups are trying to capitalize on some of the opportunities, and at the same time they're trying to build capacity.

We're trying to do a lot of things, and a lot of the stuff that's happening now in the communities is due to a lack of communication. There is no communication, and if there is communication, it's not clear. The ones who we really need to communicate to are our elders.

We don't have a South Slavey interpreter here. We don't have a Dogrib interpreter here. We don't have any of the people who we need to get this message to our elders, who are key to the decisions for the longevity of our lands. So we need to make sure that any message that we do speak about is clear to our elders. And the land claims issues, they're unclear on those. There are lots of issues on the table they're unclear of.

There are land claims now where we have boundaries and we have overlap areas. What the old people don't understand is why is that boundary not defined. Why is it all of a sudden you get into this grey area and you need letters of support from every other group, when it should be defined? That's one of the barriers for economic development in working with other first nation groups: there is no defined boundary and it's an overlap.

I'm not too sure why that is there, but it should have been clearly defined in the land claim. Before putting that line on the map, I believe that people should have consulted with all groups to make sure that was okay with everybody and come up with a definite line, not an invisible line, and then all of a sudden you get into a grey zone where you don't know what they mean. You don't know if you need their support, you don't know what you could do in that area, you don't know who owns it. So there are definitely things that can be done there that need to be done so that we can continue to go after these opportunities that are there.

Now I'll just continue about some of the things that we do. Nogha started out small and because of our aggressiveness and because the things that we do we try to do well, we've been slowly moving on to contracts, picking up work and picking up major contracts, major opportunities.

Right now we do have a major opportunity at our doorstep, and we're trying to capitalize on that with the people who are there. In order to do that, we have given them support. We have given them everything that we could do to help them drive this vehicle so we can get things done in the north, in our area, in our traditional area. That's what they want to do.

We have worked with other first nation groups and we continue to. Just recently we worked with a first nation group that five years ago didn't have any equipment. Now, today, I've got less equipment on that project. They've got most of the equipment on that project and they're running with that contract.

They have a $5 million contract, and they like that. They didn't have that five years ago. But first nation working with first nation can accomplish these things and can make it better. If you have the support of other first nations by doing this and the government is supporting that, then there is no barrier. We can do major things together. There are lots of things that we can do together.

One of the main things was communication. Communication will have to develop so that our elders understand clearly what it is that you want, how it is that you're going to take it, how it is that we can get it back or that we can be a part of it. They need to know those things clearly. And some of the people who represent them these days do not speak their language. So there's that barrier. We lost that whole system and we lost that connection. There is a connection still there, but we need to capitalize on the people we have who can keep that connection there, and that's what we are doing in our area now. We're trying to encourage our dialect in our band office. Now everybody in our band office is trying to speak Slavey, even though it's not clear what they're saying. At least they're trying, they're making an effort--and we help them too. But those little things need to improve, because we need our language back. We need the control of ourselves through our language, and that's who we are. We can speak and practise our culture only provided we have our language.

One of the reasons for economic prosperity for us is so that we can practise our culture and practise it without the barrier that we have to get back to our home. We can stay out there and practise it, teach it, hand it down, and then even do school for our kids out there. That's the whole reason for my drive to make economic prosperity in our area, so that we can practise culture and keep culture on the table and keep it strong.

I can go on for a long time, but--

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Well, maybe we could work that in. We are at the eight-minute mark now, so if there are some other points, we might be able to hear them in the course of our questions. We're at that point now.

So thank you, Mr. Cazon. Could you say your name again?

[Gilbert Cazon]

It's Cazon.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

And you said that I've mispronounced the name of the organization. It's Nogha, and you said that was a wolverine?

[Gilbert Cazon]

That's a wolverine in South Slavey dialect.