N.W.T. MLAs pass new Wildlife Act

After work by five governments and more than 50 drafts, the N.W.T. has a new Wildlife Act.

Fourteen MLAs voted to approve the bill Thursday night. Weledeh MLABob Bromley, Frame Lake MLAWendy Bisaro and Range Lake North MLA Daryl Dolynny voted against it.

Speaking before the vote, Environment Minister Michael Miltenberger called it the most important piece of legislation this government will pass.

"It has helped us create processes, working with aboriginal governments that exist nowhere else, in which we can draft legislation together," he said. "Ithas helped set a really solid foundation for devolution, and it has brought our Wildlife Act, old and archaic, into the 21st century."

Miltenberger says the Inuvialuit and groups in the Sahtu still have concerns about a clause that will give the minister the ability to ask for hunters to report their harvests. He hopes to resolve those concerns when a co-management group works on new hunting regulations.