Federal budget promises funding for Ukkusiksalik

Ukkusiksalik National Park, south of Repulse Bay, is expected to receive part of the $490 million being set aside for national parks in next week’s federal budget.

The area comprising 23,500 square kilometres around Wager Bay was first identified as a national park in 1978. But the new cash infusion will make it the newest national park in Canada.

About $165 million, or a third of the total amount, will go to the creation of new parks and conservation areas. Parks Canada has a long-term plan to create 14 parks, including Bathurst Island National Park in Nunavut and Torngat Mountains Park in Newfoundland, Gulf Islands National Park in British Columbia and Lake Superior National Marine Park in Ontario.

Negotiations between Ottawa and the Kivalliq Inuit Association about the facilities and funding for Ukkusiksalik National Park took place earlier this year.

Details of the agreement, however, have not been made public.

Nancy Karetak-Kindell, Liberal MP for Nunavut, said part of the funds will go toward building visitors centres in Repulse Bay and Rankin Inlet to serve outfitters and tour guides. There is already one naturalist camp, the Inuit-owned Sila Lodge, serving the park area.

The goal of the funding is to create Inuit jobs, Ms. Karetak-Kindell told the National Post. “It will allow Inuit to work in the park. So many people want to be on the land, this is a great opportunity for those who want to live a traditional life,” she said.

But the new money will create little beyond infrastructure. Many Inuit who want to be on the land and live a traditional life are already doing so.

The funding will allow visitors from the South to more easily visit Wager Bay’s breathtaking landscape.

And it is an incredible sight. The area is not only home to beluga whales and caribou herds, but it has one of the largest peregrine falcon populations in Canada. Wager Bay features a reversing waterfall that changes direction as the tide comes in and goes out.

In addition, there are about 500 archeological sites of early humans, an old Hudson’s Bay Company trading post and a Roman Catholic mission no longer in use.

The park was to open in June 2002, with an initiation ceremony scheduled for this past September. However, the events of Sept. 11 put plans for a ceremony on hold and no new date has been announced.