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Charest announces creation of Pingualuit Park

Opens door to a relationship of trust between Quebec and the Inuit

ISABELLE DUBOIS

Quebec's new premier delivered the Nunavik's first provincial park during his visit to the region last week.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest and his delegation, along with Inuit leaders, including Pita Aatami, the president of Makvik Corp., get a warm welcome on their arrival in Kangiqsualujjuaq last week. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF THE QUEBEC PREMIER)

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Jean Charest officially announced the creation of Pingualuit Park on Aug. 28 during a ceremony in Makivik Corp.'s head office in Kuujjuaq.

Pingualuit Crater is the centerpiece of the new park. The crater is a perfectly circular lake that was formed by a meteorite more than 1.3 million years ago. It is more than three kilometres wide and 267 metres deep, and is renown for the purity of its water.

"The creation of the new park is an expression of our government's intent to preserve spaces and ecosystems for future generations," Charest said as Makivik President Pita Aatami, Pierre Corbeil, minister for forests, wildlife and parks, and Benoît Pelletier, minister for aboriginal affairs, looked on.

Last Friday's signing honoured a provision of the 2002 Sanarrutik economic agreement between Nunavik and Quebec. The agreement promised a budget of $5.7 million for start-up and $3.9 million for operating costs over the next five years.

It was also the culmination of more than 30 years of anticipation for Nunavik, which has been pressing for regional park development since the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement was signed in 1975.

Yet Pingualuit Park is significant, not only because it is the first provincial park in the region, but also because it will be Quebec's first park managed by a local population.

The new park, which is expected to be operational by the end of this year, will be run by Inuit through the Kativik Regional Government. This means local Inuit will keep all traditional harvesting rights within the park.

"The fact that the new park will be managed by the Inuit themselves, certainly bears witness to the faith that Quebec has in them," said Marc Alain, the political attaché to Minister Corbeil.

"Characterized by trust, this new relation between the government and the Inuit, leading to a delegation of responsibilities, can also lead to a certain autonomy," added Minister Pelletier's political attaché, Louis-Félix Binette.

Charest said he hopes the new park will serve as a model for the development of other parks in the region. Four other park projects are currently under study in Nunavik and he believes the creation of more parks could encourage eco- and adventure tourism in Arctic Quebec.

The park announcement was only one stop in Charest's first tour of Nunavik as premier. During his visit, Charest returned to the community of Kangiqsualujjuaq, which he first visited as leader of the opposition after the New Year's Eve avalanche of 1999.

The premier said he was impressed to see how the community had coped since the tragedy. Community members, who were touched by Charest's presence at the funeral, were grateful for his return.

"The premier's visit is important to us," said Kangiqsualujjuaq mayor Bobby Baron. "It is the only way that he can see how we live."

Charest also spent some time at the Nunavik Research Centre in Kuujjuaq.

A closed meeting followed his visit to the centre, where government officials and Inuit leaders discussed many other issues related to the North.

Following the meeting, Aatami thanked the premier and his delegation for accepting his invitation.

"We are, hopefully, starting a beautiful relationship," he said. "We have accomplished some positive things in the past with the government of Quebec, and we hope we can do more."

Charest spent some time during his tour reassuring Inuit about his government's policy of cutting spending.

"Of course there will be reductions in government spending but these will be mainly at the administration level," he said.

By cutting the fat from Quebec's bureaucracy, the new premier hopes to better serve the province's residents by reducing taxes and emphasizing issues such as the health care and education.

Although Charest did not make any concrete promises, he pledged to listen closely to aboriginal concerns about housing, insurance and local government.

For his part, Pelletier announced an $850,000 grant to the KRG for a variety of community development projects that will be funded through the Secrétariat aux Affaires Autochtones' aboriginal development fund.

Minister Corbeil presented $1.6 million to the KRG through the support program for Inuit beneficiaries of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, for hunting, fishing and trapping activities.

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