Nunavut outfitters facing Wildlife Act charges

Arctic Kingdom outfitters are facing four charges under the Nunavut Wildlife Act related to interactions with animals near Qikiqtarjuaq in March 2017. (FILE PHOTO)

Nunavut tourism operator Arctic Kingdom is facing multiple charges under Nunavut’s Wildlife Act, stemming from alleged unlicensed activities the company organized last winter in Qikiqtarjuaq.

According to documents filed with the Nunavut Court of Justice, dated June 15, the company was charged with four violations under the Wildlife Act, one for each day from March 25 to 28 of this year.

The section of the act Arctic Kingdom contravened is the same for each charge, and relates to organizing an activity to “interact, manipulate, or closely observe wildlife without a license.”

Lawyers appeared briefly before a judge at the Nunavut Court of Justice July 4, requesting an adjournment of the matter until Sept. 26.

If those charges proceed to trial—and if Arctic Kingdom is found guilty—the act allows a judge to impose fines of between $500 and $1 million.

The sum of the fine takes into account the level of harm committed to the animals, any profits gained, a history of non-compliance under the Wildlife Act, and any contraventions of bylaws set by the local hunting and trapping association.

Arctic Kingdom is based in Iqaluit and has been offering private and group tours of the Canadian Arctic since its founding in 1999.

In 2013, a group of travellers taking part in the outfitter’s tour of the Northwest Passage were stranded when the ice they were camping on broke free of the floe edge near Arctic Bay.

The following year, in 2014, another emergency forced a tour group near Pond Inlet to cut its trip short—abandoning sheets of plywood, gas canisters, plastic crates and other building supplies across the floe edge.

Staff later returned to the site to clean it up, but not before photos of the site spurred an outcry from Nunavummiut on social media.

This week, Arctic Kingdom got the go-ahead from the Nunavut Impact Review Board to facilitate a Red Bull TV extreme mountain biking project on Axel Heiberg Island in Nunavut’s High Arctic.