Returning wildlife management to local control in the Northwest Territories

This thesis is about aboriginal and treaty rights to wildlife and wildlife harvesting, including the right to make decisions about these activities in the Northwest Territories. It deals with the erosion of these rights in the period before 1982 and then traces the protection, redefinition and resurgence of these rights since 1982, when section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 was enacted. Section 35 affords constitutional protection to treaty and aboriginal rights including those rights negotiated through modern land claim agreements. This thesis shows that the effect of section 35 jurisprudence and land claims has been to halt the erosion of aboriginal and treaty rights to wildlife and to enhance local control of wildlife management in the Northwest Territories.