N.W.T. urged to consult Dene over caribou hunting ban

Tensions are rising in the Northwest Territories leigislature over the government's ban on hunting the Bathurst caribou herd, as at least one MLA is urging the government to hold emergency talks with aboriginal groups.

Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya presented a motion in the legislative assembly on Thurdsay, calling on the territorial government to set "a place and date to have an emergency meeting [of] the aboriginal people of the Northwest Territories to consider their consultative process and come to an agreement regarding the caribou."

Yakeleya said he wants such public consultations to consider alternatives to a hunting ban, which Dene leaders have said violates their members' treaty rights.

MLAs will vote on Yakeleya's motion on Monday.

The legislature's public gallery was packed with about 80 people from Dettah and N'dilo, N.W.T., as well as Dene leaders who said they were disappointed to hear cabinet members expressing opposition to Yakeleya's motion.

The Bathurst hunting ban began Jan. 1 and prohibits all hunters from harvesting caribou in a no-hunting zone north of Great Slave Lake to the boundary with Nunavut.

The N.W.T. government imposed the temporary no-hunting zone over concerns about the Bathurst caribou herd, which government surveys indicate is in steep decline.

Discussionsunderway: Miltenberger

But many Dene leaders oppose the emergency ban, arguing that it violates their treaty rights to hunt for subsistence purposes. Many Dene rely on caribou as a food source, especially during the winter.

Some chiefs say they would take the territorial government to court over the hunting ban.

Environment and Natural Resources Minister Michael Miltenberger said he has recently held talks withaffected parties, including the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, about the hunting ban.

"We recognize that there are some unresolved issues with the Yellowknives. We have discussions underway with them that we're hoping will bear some fruit here in the next day or so," Miltenberger said Thursday.

Acontrolled hunt of 25 caribou within the no-hunting zone has been proposed to ease the situation.

The First Nation recently asked a justice of the peace to make N.W.T. wildlife officials give back caribou meat that was confiscated from aboriginal hunters in the no-hunting zone.

When asked about the government's legal right to impose a hunting ban, Miltenberger said the government has the authority to do so because the Bathurst caribou herd's declining numbers constitute an emergency situation.