Anderson wants Quttinirpaaq Park on world heritage list

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

The federal environment minister is rallying his department to turn Nunavut’s most northern national park into a premiere world attraction known as a World Heritage Site.

Minister David Anderson announced late last month that the federal government will be lobbying the World Heritage Committee, a group affiliated with the United Nations, to put Quttinirpaaq National Park on a select list of tourist meccas around the world.

Despite the expense associated with going to Quttinirpaaq National Park, Anderson expects a successful bid to put the park on the list will cause a jump in tourism in the High Arctic.

Officials working in the Nunavut tourism industry welcomed the attention, but rejected his comments about the heritage status leading to an influx of tourists.

“[The park] will get a lot more people,” Anderson said during a press conference April 30. “Naming something a world heritage site is just sort of like a magnet. It brings people, because it is considered of course one of the most exceptional places that the tourists might like to visit.”

Nunavut tourism officials, however, don’t expect getting on the prestigious list will change much.

“I don’t think there’s going to be an influx in tourism,” said Sekayi Pswarayi, marketing director for Nunavut Tourism. “It will raise awareness of Nunavut, which is a good thing, because five years ago we didn’t exist and now we do.”

The Quttinirpaaq Park is visited every year by small numbers of researchers, Parks Canada staff, and cruise-ship passengers, but because of its isolation and sensitive environment, access to it is carefully controlled.

Technically, Anderson’s announcement puts Quttinirpaaq National Park on Canada’s tentative list for World Heritage Sites, which include some of the most geographically beautiful and culturally significant spots around the country.

The federal government revamped its list of proposed areas after the international committee in charge of selecting sites noted that Canada hadn’t updated its list in over 20 years. The federal government will pick only one of the 11 sites on its tentative list each year to formally propose as a world heritage site.

The world heritage committee, made of representatives of 21 countries under the auspices of the United Nations, chooses the winning sites among hundreds every year. The list of world heritage sites reads like a tourist’s dream itinerary, including England’s Stonehenge and the breathtaking vistas in the Rocky Mountain National Parks in B.C.

Anderson told reporters that his department picked Quttinirpaaq National Park because it fits the international committee’s criteria, such as being an example of a traditional human settlement.

The park, found on the northern third of Ellesmere Island, encompasses the northern-most area ever occupied by people, namely Inuit ancestors known as the Palaeo-Eskimo.

Anderson noted that the park also meets the committee’s expectations for unique natural phonemena, such as Lake Hazen, the northern-most lake in the world, and the Peary caribou, a tough yet endangered species which has migrated through the high arctic in desert conditions for centuries.

“Essentially it’s a desert,” Anderson said of the park’s low-precipitation levels. “This frozen desert is not unusual for us, but it’s unusual on a global scale.”

But Anderson admitted the park’s unique location also serves as a deterrent to the deluge of visitors he’s hoping for. Tourists fork over a premium to fly to the park, in addition to the cost of hiring an outfitter to organize their trip.

If the park becomes a world heritage site, Anderson said his department will look at improving infrastructure, including building secure huts (“If there’s bears, you don’t want your tourists to be eaten up,” he said), but stopped short of offering additional funding.

Government officials caution that the world heritage committee already views Canada as well represented, with 13 sites on the list, and therefore will only accept one Canadian proposal per year. The government probably won’t propose Nunavut’s park formally for the next two years, according to a department spokesperson.

However, Murray McComb, who handles heritage issues for Parks Canada, said Quttinirpaaq National Park “fits the bill” because the world committee currently lacks a High Arctic site on its list.

“I think globally, there’s a real Arctic gap,” he said.