Around Nunavik

TASIJUAQ – It’s official: Nunavik now has a second provincial park, Kuururjuaq, located near the community of Kangiqsualujjuaq.

Maggie Emudluk, chairperson of the Kativik Regional Government, said all legislative requirements for the creation of the Parc national Kuururjuaq had finally been met by Quebec’s National Assembly at this week’s sitting of the KRG council in Tasiujaq,

She said the park’s creation is particularly important for the people of Kangiqsualujjuaq, many of whom were born and lived in the park area.

The new park, she noted, would not interfere with the rights of Inuit under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement to hunt and gather in the area.

The centrepiece of the new Kuururjuaq park is the 160-kilometre Koroc River, which flows down from the Torngat Mountains through a broad valley to Ungava Bay.

To develop and manage Kuururjuaq, the KRG will receive an annual budget of $1.1 million to operate the new park, as well as a capital budget of $6 million for the construction of a visitors centre and maintenance warehouse in Kangiqsualujjuaq, as well as camping and safety infrastructure in the park.

The visitor’s centre at Nunavik’s first provincial park, the Parc national des Pingualuit in Kangiqsujuaq, recently received special recognition from Tourisme Québec for its superior design.

The permanent exhibit was awarded a bronze prize in the category of Tourism Attraction: fewer than 100,000 visitors.