Okalik to visit Europe to lobby against restrictions

Greenland and Nunavut will work together to combat the European Union's growing move towards a ban on the import of all seal products.

This past weekend, Nunavut's premier, Paul Okalik, was in Greenland where he agreed to accompany Greenland Prime Minister Hans Enoksen to Europe this fall and jointly lobby against a European seal product ban.

The Netherlands' ban on the import of seal products from Canada and other countries is to come into effect Sept. 11. It joins an earlier import ban imposed by Belgium in April.

The two premiers also talked about the idea of reviving a Canada-Greenland scheduled airline connection.

While in Greenland, Okalik, along with his minister responsible for finance and transportation and finance, David Simailak, attended the Siumut Party's 30th anniversary celebrations in Qaqortoq, reports Greenland's weekly newspaper, Sermitsiaq.

Okalik said at a Saturday night gala supper that Greenland had set an example for him as a government leader.

On Sunday, Okalik and other members of the official delegation from Nunavut went to visit some of the 60 sheep farms near Qaqortoq and travelled by boat to Qaqortukolooq, the site of an old Norse church.

Sermitsiaq reports Okalik praised sheep farmers during his visit Qanisartuut.

"Even if we don't have agriculture in Nunavut, your ingenuity and development is a big inspiration for us. It proves that we Inuit constantly are able to make use of resources of land," Okalik said after lunch at sheep farmer Ernst Lund's home.

The menu included freshly-slaughtered lamb with potatoes, red cabbage and gravy – according to Okalik it was the best lamb he ever had tasted, Sermitsiaq reported.

Enoksen invited the visiting Nunavummiut to dinner at Napparsivik, a restaurant dating from the early colonial era.

Then Enoksen and Okalik travelled from Qaqortoq, the home of Great Greenland's sealskin plant, to Narsaq, the home of the Eskimo Pels sealskin plant, where they were to sign a memorandum of understanding between Nunavut and Greenland on fighting the European seal ban.

More details of this latest agreement were not available before Nunatsiaq News press-time this week.

Last year, during a visit to Nunavut by Enoksen, the two governments signed an agreement calling for closer trade ties between their two jurisdictions.