North Slave Métis back in court over Bathurst caribou

The North Slave Métis Alliance is once again taking the Northwest Territories government to court.

In June 2013, Justice Shannon Smallwood ruled that the group should have been consulted when a decision was made in 2010 to restrict the Bathurst caribou harvest to the Yellowknives Dene and the Tlicho.

Bill Enge, president of the North Slave Métis Alliance, says two years later, the government hasn't complied with the ruling.

“The minister said he would entertain a funding proposal from the North Slave Métis to harvest the Beverly and Ahiak herds some 600 kilometres southeast of Yellowknife and we say, no that doesn't respect the order.”

Enge says a judge will decide if what has been proposed satisfies the ruling.

The territorial government estimates the Bathurst caribou herd is down to 15,000 animals.

In the fall of 2009, the herd’s population was estimated at 31,900, plus or minus 11,000.

A 2006 survey found 128,000 animals in the barren-ground caribou herd.

The Chief of Whati, Alfonz Nitsiza tells the CBC the minister for the environment, Michael Miltenberger, has suggested a total ban on hunting the herd.