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$5.1 million fisheries fund to train Inuit

"Inuit will contribute to and benefit enormously from this fishing program"

JIM BELL

Geoff Regan, the minister of Fisheries and Oceans, reaffirmed the federal government's support for the Baffin Fisheries Coalition at a ceremony last week to launch a $5.1 million fisheries training fund for Nunavut. (PHOTO BY JIM BELL)

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Though it was for an old piece of news, Nunavut's big-wigs put on a big show last week to help Geoff Regan, the federal fisheries minister, "announce" a three-year, $5.1 million fisheries training fund for Nunavut.

Jerry Ward, CEO of the Baffin Fisheries Coalition, said the first training programs under the fund started up in February, taking in 50 to 60 trainees.

Regan, who declared the "official launch" of the program at a ceremony in the lobby of the Nunavut legislature on April 22, used his speech to reaffirm the federal government's support for the BFC.

In August of 2000, DFO, acting on the advice of the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization, decided to give Nunavut 100 per cent of the turbot quota in northern Davis Strait, or division 0A.

"I believe that was an important decision and an important moment," Regan said in his speech.

A year later, the Nunavut government, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., and the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board created the BFC out of 11 Baffin organizations, mostly hunters and trappers organizations and small community-based fishing firms, and hired Ward to run it.

The NWMB then recommended that the BFC gain the right to fish 100 per cent of the 4,000-tonne allowable catch of turbot in 0A, a decision that was rubber-stamped by DFO.

Since then, the BFC, now down to 10 members since the departure of Qikiqtarjuaq's Nattivak HTO, has been the focus of internal and external controversy, and is now the subject of a probe being conducted by the House of Commons standing committee on fisheries.

But there was no mention of all that last week, as representatives of BFC's backers heaped praise upon the organization and the $5.1 million training scheme.

"I firmly believe that with the skills in place, Inuit will contribute to and benefit enormously from this fishing program," Regan bragged.

The BFC spearheaded the training proposal and will take part in a group called the "Nunavut Fisheries Consortium," which will administer the money.

Jerry Ward, the CEO of the Baffin Fisheries Coalition, says the fisheries training fund will help Inuit move into better jobs in the fishery.

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But the BFC, which put nearly $1 million into the fund, won't see the money flow into its coffers.

"It's managed totally separately," Ward said.

He said the training scheme is aimed at raising Inuit out of low-level deckhand and factory jobs and into better-paying technical and professional jobs: mates, engineers, fisheries observers, and administrators.

Most of the training will be done at Nunavut Arctic College, with some technical training at the Marine Institute in St. John's, Nfld., Ward said.

A federal government handout sheet says the program is expected to provide training for up to 180 people, "sustainable jobs" for up to 80 Inuit living in Nunavut, and after advanced training, up to 145 "long-term" jobs for Inuit.

The plan will also provide career counselling and pay for recruitment and retention efforts.

To pay for the plan, money will come from the following sources over the next three years:

• Federal government (through Department of Human Resources): $3.2 million;
• Government of Nunavut: $500,000;
• Baffin Fisheries Coalition: $984,515;
• Kakivak Association: $333,702;
• Hunters and Trappers Organizations: $100,000.

All these groups will sit on a board set up by the Nunavut Fisheries Consortium to manage the training money.

The BFC will keep its 4,000 metric tonne quota in division 0A this year.

Starting in the fall, DFO will begin consulting with the NWMB and other groups for a new management plan for the Davis Strait fishery that would start in 2006.

Nunavut interests now control about 33 per cent of the offshore fishery in Davis Strait. Quotas in Division 0B, or southern Davis Strait, are still dominated by southern Canadian fishing companies.

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