Makivik president “astonished” at Nunavut’s anger

The government of Nunavut’s outrage over the offshore agreement that Makivik Corporation initialed with federal officials on March 26 astonished Makivik Corporation president Pita Aatami.

“We were caught by surprise by Nunavut,” Aatami said. “For me, it’s bad timing. They could have done it before.”

The agreement-in-principle for Nunavik’s offshore agreement contains words ensuring that Nunavik Inuit will get commercial fishing rights in the waters of Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, adjacent to Nunavut.

But Aatami said the GN knew about this provision for months.

Since 1992, Makivik has been negotiating a deal with the federal government to settle its claim to aboriginal rights in Nunavik’s offshore waters.

During the past year and a half of talks, Aatami said Nunavut’s lawyers were well aware of the agreement-in-principle’s wording, but never officially protested.

Nunavut premier Paul Okalik and Nunavut Tunngavik president Paul Quassa did encourage Makivik’s leaders to drop the Baffin Bay and Davis Strait region out of their offshore claim when they paid a visit to Makivik’s annual general meeting in Kujjuaraapik last April.

But permanent ground-fishing licenses held by southern fishing interests still take the bulk of the quota for turbot in that area.

So Aatami says he doesn’t feel the relatively small quota guaranteed to Nunavik is worth haggling over when other, outside fisheries have a much larger claim on the resources. He’d said he would rather see Nunavut complain about the non-Inuit license-holders.

“We’re seen as the bad guys,” Aatami said.

Last week, Okalik also said Nunavik Inuit had no traditional claim over Nunavut waters, but Aatami defended their right to a quota on the basis of current use of these waters — use that may not be traditional, but does go back 20 years.

In a telephone interview from British Columbia, the chief federal negotiator for the Nunavik’s offshore agreement, Tom Molloy, backed up Aatami.

Molloy said he was also surprised about the GN’s reaction to the provision on fisheries.

“It wasn’t something that was thrown in at the last minute,” he said.

Molloy said the allocation of the fish quotas to Nunavik Inuit was determined according to their current use of the resource.

Molloy, who also negotiated the Nunavut land claim agreement on behalf of the federal government, said this isn’t the first time aboriginal fishing rights have been entrenched in a treaty. He said similar guarantees are contained in the Nisg’aa and Nunatsiavut land claims.

Molloy said these quotas are supposed to remove some of the uncertainty around the resource’s use.

“It’s not intended to affect the aboriginal rights of other groups,” Molly said.

In the same breath, Molloy said Nunavut couldn’t expect another region’s treaty to include any guarantees for their cut of the fish quotas.

Molloy said he’s open to talking with the GN and Nunavut Tunngavik to see if their concerns can be met — and has already put out this offer in a letter.

But Molloy said reopening large sections of the recently signed agreement-in-principle could be unwise and is unlikely, because the whole deal could unravel.

“A treaty is 1,000 threads of compromise and when you start taking out the threads, it starts to come apart,” Molloy said. “I’m not saying we’re going to gut the fish provisions.”

On the other hand, Molloy said there is more than a year ahead before the final version will be signed — enough time to try for a workable compromise.

The offshore agreement also gives Nunavik $50 million in capital transfer over 25 years, $5 million for a wildlife management board, control over 80 per cent of offshore islands and employment guarantees.

When Makivik first entered in talks for an offshore deal, its negotiators were seeking $500 million in compensation.

But Aatami said he’s satisfied with the agreement-in-principle.

“For us it’s worth all the effort,” Aatami said. “We happy with what we’re getting.”