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NTI, GN battle over wolverine and grizzly quotas

NTI doesn't like proposed new hunting limits in Wildlife Act regulations

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Members of the NWMB heard from federal officials last month that they would not put Nunavut's wolverine and grizzly on the endangered species list. (PHOTO BY GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS)

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The government of Nunavut's push to limit the hunt of grizzly bear and wolverine is sending the GN towards another clash over their proposed hunting regulations.

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. wildlife representatives say they are trying to put more control over wildlife management into the hands of the communities, as they continue meeting with the GN over new proposed hunting rules for the territory.

But according to NTI, the GN is working against this approach to wildlife management, because the government intends to push for precise quotas on several species - without consulting with the communities.

Gabriel Nirlungayuk, director of wildlife for NTI, is worried that presetting limits in the regulations will mean hunters will have less influence over the harvest of grizzly bear and wolverine.

"We feel they don't have the authority to do that," Nirlungayuk said. "We never gave up that right."

Despite opposition from NTI, the government has included total allowable harvest orders, or quotas, on grizzly bear and wolverine in a proposed set of wildlife regulations, currently to be reviewed by hunters and trappers organizations.

NTI has already won two battles with the GN over proposed wildlife regulations. First, they convinced the government to slow the consultation process, to finish their Inuktitut draft, and to give hunters more time to review their proposals.

Later, the government answered NTI's call to leave caribou hunting regulations for non-Inuit as five caribou per year. Originally, the GN wanted to let non-Inuit possess five caribou at any given time.

With wolverine and grizzly bear, Nirlungayuk feels the GN has overstepped their defined powers under section 24 of the Nunavut Act. He said the act allows the GN to regulate the Inuit harvest of polar bear and muskox, and sport hunting of other animals.

But the act doesn't mention subsistence hunting of grizzly bear and wolverine, Nirlungayuk says, and therefore, the government shouldn't be managing the hunt.

The animals are mainly found in the Kitikmeot and Kivalliq regions. The wolverine pelts are coveted by hunters in communities like Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk, Baker Lake and Arviat. The fur is often used in parka trim.

"They're becoming more and more valuable to the communities," said Jim Noble, CEO of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board. "Their value is getting high."

Grizzly bear pelts and meat are generally less popular, he said.

Noble said the federal government was the first to press hunters to manage these species in Nunavut. Populations for the two species are thinning, or completely gone, in regions of southern Canada.

However, officials from Environment Canada won't be listing Nunavut's populations of wolverine and grizzly bear as a species of concern, according to minutes from the NWMB's board meeting last month.

In a recent interview with Nunatsiaq News, Trevor Swerdfager, director-general of the Canadian Wildlife Service, said they backed off the listing, specifically because the concerns they heard during consultations with groups in Nunavut.

Community representatives said more research needs to be done on the bears and wolverine in Nunavut, as the territory lacks recent population estimates on the species.

However, GN officials said they have up-to-date surveys of the two populations.

Steve Pinksen, director of policy planning and legislation for the GN's department of environment, said he had a "substantive body of research" on the two species in Nunavut.

However, Pinksen said hunters would receive a new set of proposed hunting regulations in the fall, adding that the GN's suggested quota for species "won't necessarily" be in the final drafted rules.

"It's all subject to revision," Pinksen said. "There's nothing in there that's been approved at any level.

"We will have to be making final adjustments."

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