Ben Kovic quits as chair of Nunavut Wildlife Management Board

Ben Kovic has resigned as chair of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board. He says it’s to concentrate on more on his work with the Iqaluit HTA and the board of Baffin Fisheries Coalition. (FILE PHOTO)

Ben Kovic has resigned as chair of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board.

“This is a personal decision,” Kovic told Nunatsiaq News Jan. 19.

Kovic said he resigned in order to focus on his work with the Iqaluit hunters and trappers organization and with fellow board members on the Baffin Fisheries Coalition.

Jason Akearok, the NWMB’s executive director, said that Kovic resigned Jan. 15 and that the board expects to name an acting chairperson at a meeting Feb. 16.

Kovic represents the Iqaluit hunters and trappers organization on the board of the BFC, created in 2000 after the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans gave Nunavut sole rights over a 4,000-tonne turbot quota allocation in northern Davis Strait, in what was then a new management zone called “OA.”

At the time of its creation, the BFC consisted of five Qikiqtani-region HTOs and four private businesses.

Kovic has a long history with both the NWMB and the BFC, although his involvement with the two organizations resulted in unproven allegations of conflict of interest about 10 years ago, when a parliamentary committee looked into the BFC .

The wildlife board is charged with monitoring and protecting Nunavut’s wildlife, under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, that includes making recommendations to the federal government from time to time on the allocation of turbot and shrimp quota.

The BFC, on the other hand, is a commercial enterprise that from time to time submits quota applications to the NWMB.

But Kovic said Jan. 19 that his decision to resign has nothing to do with a conflict of interest.

“I want to make it very clear, this is not about a conflict of interest. I just wanted to resign because I want to do a good job with my HTO, and with the board of BFC,” Kovic said.

Kovic confirmed Jan. 19 that former BFC president Adamee Itorcheak was ousted in the fall of 2015, but didn’t disclose any other details of Itorcheak’s departure.

Itorcheak had served as BFC president for about a year, after he succeeded the veteran BFC president and CEO, Jerry Ward.