Akulivik mayor asks DFO for beluga subsidy

ODILE NELSON

The mayor of Akulivik is asking the federal government for a subsidy to hunt beluga because he says Makivik Corporation cannot help fund his community’s beluga hunt to the Hudson Strait – despite the one-time “beluga access payout” the Department of Fisheries and Oceans gave Makivik earlier this year.

Eli Aullaluk said he wrote to the DFO on Oct. 7 at the suggestion of Johnny Peters, Makivik’s vice-president of resources development.

“Makivik directed me to approach the DFO because they said I would be in a better position to get compensation from them,” Aullaluk said Tuesday.

Earlier this year, the DFO issued a one-time payout of $50,000 to Makivik to help Nunavimmiut access new hunting areas forced on them by the DFO’s 2002 beluga management plan.

The plan, designed by the DFO to protect Arctic beluga populations it says are endangered, prohibits whaling along the Eastern Hudson Bay and throughout Ungava Bay and sets the beluga harvest at 15 whales per community.

As a result, five communities in the Ungava Bay area (Aupaluk, Tasiujaq, Kuujjuaq, Kangiqsualujjuaq and Kangirsuk) and three communities along the Eastern Hudson Bay (Inukjuak, Umiujaq and Kuujjuarapik) can only legally hunt their quotas hundreds of miles outside their traditional whaling areas.

Makivik and the Kativik Regional Government recently announced they hoped to buy $50,000 of beluga from Arviat for these eight Nunavik communities.

Akulivik chose not to participate in the purchase, though it also lies more than 100 miles from new hunting grounds. Instead the town’s hunters hoped to travel to the Hudson Strait with funding from Makivik.

But since then, Aullaluk said, Makivik executives have told him it was unlikely the organization would be able to help his community with their travelling expenses.

Though Aullaluk said he is happy Makivik will buy and distribute beluga to the eight selected communities, he said he wrote the DFO to ensure his community, which lies just north of Puvirnituq and Inukjuak, receives equal benefits.

“Makivik was in a position to purchase beluga from Arviat. I’m in favour of that. The people in Ungava Bay have no other alternatives.

ut I only hope that Makivik will have support financially from the government department. So all communities that are prohibited from hunting in their traditional areas get support financially,” he said.

Makivik could not be reached for comment on whether the $50,000 beluga purchase was being made with the DFO’s beluga hunting subsidy or whether the purchase had affected the corporation’s ability to fund Akulivik’s transportation costs.

Meanwhile other Nunavik mayors continue to express concerns over the lack of compensation.

Lucassie Inukpuk, the mayor of Kuujjarapik, said his community chose to participate in the Arviat purchase.

But he said Makivik’s inability to fund hunting trips to the government-prescribed areas shows a lack of planning on the federal government’s part.

“With only $50,000 given to access beluga, well it would be enough for communities to hunt but it would not be enough to get them back. That’s what the money amounts to and I don’t know if the federal government realizes that,” Inukpuk said.

Johnny Oovaut, the mayor of Quaqtaq, said he’s chiefly concerned Makivik is using the entire government payout to purchase muktuk from Arviat.

“Well if it’s the $50,000 [the DFO gave Makivik in June] it is not to obtain muktuk. It should be used to buy gas and provisions for all hunters,” Oovaut said. “They’re doing something that was not approved of at the beluga management meeting in Kuujjuaq. We did not come to any agreement. They discussed the idea to go to Arviat to obtain quotas but there was no consensus on it.”

“If our harvest is going to be reduced we want a compensation but our community hasn’t been compensated,” Oovaut said. “The beluga is not for the Hudson Strait communities. It’s only for communities that are prohibited from hunting any more in their traditional areas.”

Quaqtaq hunters can still harvest in their traditional waters but must cut their yearly haul by half to meet the federal government’s quota.

Daniel Gagnon, acting director of native fisheries for the DFO, could offer little to appease Nunavik’s mayors.

Though he had not been able to respond to Aullaluk’s letter as of press time, Gagnon said the DFO had no plans to release new subsidies.

“Essentially, I think we will refer him to Makivik because the DFO’s contribution was given to Makivik to manage,” he said. “The most part of the contribution is to go to those who haven’t access to all their quotas within the [Hudson] strait. But the last word is to Makivik.”

But Aullaluk disagreed.

He said if Makivik is unable to help all Nunavik communities access their traditional muktuk – whether through purchasing Arviat beluga or funding hunts to the government set hunting areas, it might simply mean it is time for new talks.

“Unfortunately, with our dismay at the new regulations, we will not harvest in our traditional area…. If the beluga is truly declining, then we should preserve the whale for future use. It’s for the good of everyone,” Aullaluk said. “But if we are not all given our share of subsidies we can only say the DFO and Makivik need to go back to the drawing board.”