Natural Resources committee  Yes, you're correct. It would and it could provide yet another anchor client to help further develop and advance this industry as we go forward. Clearly anybody investing a significant amount of money in developing this industry will need solid blue-chip anchor clients. The mor

Natural Resources committee  I might throw this over to Bill and Frank. I know that at a pan-territorial level, just wearing another hat, there's some work under way on the greenhouse gas front. While we haven't talked a lot about that today, this technology and this industry does help us on that front as we

Environment committee  Thank you. Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. As you mentioned my name is Evan Walz. I'm the acting assistant deputy minister of operations for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources with the Government of the NWT. I'm joined today by Jamie

Environment committee  In the Northwest Territories, the maintenance of that lifestyle is so important. We have embarked on programs like Take a Kid Trapping or trapper training. I am going to ask our head of field support, who has his feet firmly in the field, to speak to it a little bit. It's all fo

Environment committee  The decline in caribou populations in the NWT has had a very significant effect on all harvesters, particularly aboriginal harvesters. We recently saw a substantial decline in the Bathurst herd. We're seeing what we believe might be trends on a neighbouring herd, the Bluenose-Eas

Environment committee  Thank you for the question. We have seen, as we mentioned, some pretty dramatic declines. There has been a lot of talk about predation, about wolves, and we are undertaking studies to try to ascertain the relative health of the herd. Typically when a prey species declines, the p

Environment committee  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 happen

Environment committee  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 t

Environment committee  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?

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

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  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,

Environment committee  That was me.

Environment committee  I'll have to get Jamie to speak to the history of the holdover of migratory birds being under federal legislation. Everything beyond that is under our jurisdiction. Jamie, can you speak a little to the federal involvement in migratory birds, or is that something we just sort of

Environment committee  Regarding the relationship we have with the federal government around hunting and trapping, as I said, the only real level of involvement that they have at this point in our NWT history is in relation to migratory birds. So they have a fairly narrow level of involvement. Go ahea