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Nunavik fish expert condemns inequalities

"You cannot have one with a stick and one with a toothpick"

JANE GEORGE

During a recent session of the Senate Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, Nunavik presented its case for more access to the northern fisheries, with Neil Greig, Makivik's long-time advisor on fisheries, testifying on behalf of the region.

Makivik Corp. holds licences for Nunavimmiut in both the northern shrimp and turbot fisheries - although not as much as Nunavut.

Greig condemned the inequalities of the current quotas. He said the "overburdened system" means Nunavimmiut don't call "our cousins in Kingait or Iqaluit and say, "we are going to go up here, do you want to come?"

"I would like to see more cooperation, but it has to be equal. There should be no sticks. You cannot have one with a stick and one with a toothpick, until the playing field is levelled off a bit. Unfortunately, Makivik will be the one with the toothpick," Greig said.

Nunavik wants protected quotas for shrimp and higher quotas for turbot, particularly in the fishing zone OB. Nunavik has a quota of 140 tonnes in this zone, that's about two per cent of the total handed out and much less than Nunavut.

"This is very unfair ... we believe that we have as much history, adjacency to these stocks, as our neighbours in the North and to the East, yet there is not a fair sharing of the resource. This needs to be changed and only the government has the power to do this," Greig said.

Nunavik also wants access to the more northerly turbot fishing zone OA, located between Baffin Island and Greenland, when its quotas are handed out.

Greig, who is a partner in Farocan, the for-profit operating company that fishes Nunavik's license, said Makivik is looking into "an ownership arrangement" in a vessel. He said a new 17-metre trawler with a freezer factory could cost around $34 million.

But, before investing, Greig said Makivik first needs "a proper mix to make things sustainable over the long term" - that is, a groundfish license as well as a higher turbot quota because the price for shrimp fluctuates from year to year.

"Nunavik or Makivik obviously want more. We cannot even consider acquiring or making substantial investment in a vessel when we have only 140 tonnes to fish.... For us to get our 1,000 metric tons, we will displace somebody else."

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