Industrial development worries caribou board

The Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board spent most of their meeting in Rankin Inlet this week talking about proposed industrial developments in the Kivalliq region and how they might affect caribou.

“Current government policies aren’t adequate to safeguard the herds’ traditional calving grounds and other important habitats,” the board said in a press release this week.

The Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board is made up of aboriginal hunters, biologists and wildlife managers from Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The board provides advice on conserving the two herds, which migrate aross Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

At this week’s meeting, held May 26 to May 28 in Rankin Inlet, the board heard from John Hickes, a representative of SNC-Lavalin, on a proposed 1,200-kilometre road between Manitoba and Nunavut.

The were also to have heard from Cumberland Resources, the company that is proposing to develop the Meadowbank gold mine near Baker Lake, but Cumberland’s representatives had to withdraw to attend another hearing elsewhere.