MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for the District of The Straits & White Bay North.

MR. DEAN: Mr. Speaker, I am pleased this afternoon to be able to stand and present a petition again on behalf of the residents of Newfoundland and Labrador really but, in particular, for my district.

I would like to read the prayer of the petition into the record:

To the hon. House of Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament assembled, the petition of the undersigned humbly sheweth:

WHEREAS the people in The Straits & White Bay North area feel it should be legal to set heavier steel wire to snare rabbits; and

WHEREAS rabbits are bigger and stronger in the spring as compared to the fall season with many injured animals breaking away from the brass and picture cord wire, setting injured free to suffer; and

WHEREAS weak wire was implemented to conserve the marten, but this animal is not known to inhabit our area;

WHEREUPON your petitioners call upon all Members of the House of Assembly to urge government to address this matter to reinstate the use of heavier wire for rabbit snaring for this area of the Island.

And as in duty bound your petitioners will ever pray.

Mr. Speaker, this may not seem all that important to some members of government, and I understand that a lot of things do not seem to be important to them. It is important to the people of the Northern Peninsula and other areas where they are very active in the snaring of rabbits. The issue has been brought forward and lots of cases made as to where animals are getting away with snares on them because of the size of the wire that is being used. They are being caught again with sometimes two and three snares around them. Obviously, many of these rabbits are getting away and they are basically perishing –

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MR. DEAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There is a lot of excitement about rabbits over there.

Mr. Speaker, it is a serious issue for those who are involved in the sport, if you want to call it that, and many people do a tremendous amount of snaring along the Northern Peninsula in the fall and winter. The issue of - it is my understanding - why the smaller gauge wire is used is to protect the pine marten.

Mr. Speaker, my first understanding or encounter with the pine marten was thirty-odd years ago when I moved to Port aux Basques and I remember that they inhabited the Burgeo road area of our Province. I would suggest that there has never been a pine marten to the Northern Peninsula unless someone took one up for a ride sometime and brought them back down again.

The fear of pine martens being caught in snares, if that is the issue as to why it has been changed, then I would suggest it is an overreaction by someone to a sensitive and important issue, yet the decision and the policy that has been put in place across the Province is not a good policy. I would ask government to reconsider on behalf of those who have signed the petition. I will be pleased to present this petition over the next couple of weeks. Several thousands of signatures were collected and it obviously is important to them.