NTI delegates want united support for Clyde River seismic testing appeal

Kono Tattuinee listens as Levi Barnabas speaks Oct. 21 at the Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay. The two spoke up in favour of an NTI resolution in support of Clyde River’s opposition to seismic testing off Baffin Island. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

CAMBRIDGE BAY — Delegates at NTI’s annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay Oct. 21 called on Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. to support Clyde River in the community’s fight against seismic testing.

That’s when Kono Tattuinee of Arviat, a delegate for the Kivalliq Inuit Association, and Levi Barnabas of Arctic Bay, a delegate for the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, urged NTI to pass a resolution condemning the seismic testing project for Baffin Bay and Davis Strait that is set to start in 2015.

“This is going to be very bad for Inuit in Clyde River,” Tattuinee told the gathering. “We won’t benefit from this project.”

This message was repeated by Barnabas, who talked about the impact of seismic testing on marine mammals.

Groups in Clyde River, including the hamlet, see seismic testing as a first step toward oil and gas exploration and extraction.

NTI and QIA have taken the position that Ottawa must complete a comprehensive environmental review of potential oil and gas development off Baffin Island before seismic testing should start, a position shared by the Nunavut Marine Council.

The Hamlet of Clyde River, however, has filed its own lawsuit against the National Energy Board, alleging that its decision to permit seismic testing off Baffin Bay and Davis Strait is a breach of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement and a breach of Section 35 of the Constitution.

NTI president Cathy Towtongie asked Tattuinee and Barnabas for a text of their proposed resolution, so it can go to the NTI board for further study.

Towtongie said NTI doesn’t have a policy yet on seismic testing. But she agreed with the resolution and would support it at a later time despite reservations about the involvement of Greenpeace, which has thrown its support behind the Clyde River seismic-testing opponents.

NTI AGM resolutions are usually drafted and passed at the end of its meetings, and published afterwards. This one will head to the board first, Towtongie said.

After the discussion broke up, Tattuinee said he was a little disappointed that the AGM could not immediately move to support a resolution against seismic testing.

That’s because there is so little time left to fight the project, he said.

And Tattuinee said he spoke out about the project — which is not located in the Kivalliq region of central Nunavut, but on the eastern side of Nunavut — because Inuit are the same people sharing the same ocean.

“This is about the livelihood of the people — the impact will be substantial,” said Tattuinee, president of the Arctic Co-operatives Ltd.

“And I am a hunter.”

Larry Audlaluk, acting president of the QIA, said his organization would support the people in Clyde River in their fight against seismic testing

“We’re following the wishes of our members,” Audlaluk told Nunatsiaq News.

At its recent AGM in Iqaluit, QIA said they will conduct IQ workshops on the issue in affected communities, but neither they nor NTI have joined Clyde River in its lawsuit.

The proponents of the seismic testing — a consortium referred to in legal documents as Petroleum Geo-Services Inc. — want to conduct seismic testing in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, starting in 2015.

Their five-year program received approval from the National Energy Board this past June — a judgment the Clyde River parties are now appealing.

In their appeal, the law firm representing Clyde River said the seismic program could produce “catastrophic consequences” for marine mammals.

Seismic testing consists of pulling an air gun array behind a boat that emits underwater blasts. The sounds helps researchers map the seabed and gauge the potential for oil and gas development.