New Baffin parks agreements to be signed this summer

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Negotiators for the Qikiqtaani Inuit Association and the federal government will sign an agreement later this summer that establishes three new national parks in Nunavut.

Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps is scheduled to sign an Inuit Impact and Benefits Agreement with the QIA at the end of August in Pond Inlet.

The government has a year following the signing to pass legislation making the parks official.

The parks total about 80,000 square kilometres, covering some of the most spectacular, unspoiled scenery in the world. It is the first IIBA to be signed since the land claim agreement came into force in 1993.

“It’s a good opportunity for us to help manage the parks,” Paul Amagoalik, one of the negotiators for the QIA said.

Under the agreement, which is required under the terms of the Nunavut Land Claim, traditional Inuit hunting rights in the parks are preserved, but no sport hunting by visitors will be permitted, contrary to statements published by southern newspapers last weekend.

The deal between Ottawa and the QIA establishes Sirmilik National Park, famed for its bird sanctuary on Bylot Island, Quttinirtaaq National Park on Ellesmere Island and Auyuittuq National Park between Pangirtung and Broughton Island.

Amagoalik said the agreement provides for the creation of joint management committees to manage operation of the parks, and promises to encourage the growth of local outfitting businesses.

The committees will be charged with developing overall management plans for the parks, he said.

“We could use local knowledge to help park managers to know the conditions of these areas, which might have certain dangers or that tourists might not even consider,” Amagoalik said.

“The Arctic is completely different from the rest of the world, so people got to be watched. We have to make sure they’re safe so they get to go home.”

Among other things, it’s hoped the knowledge of the land and the expertise Inuit hunters bring to the parks’ managment will preserve the integrity of wildlife populations.

Tourists should be kept away from caribou migration routes and calving grounds, for instance, to limit human disruption of animal habitat, Amagoalik said.

Under the agreement, the federal government will offer Inuit beneficiaries the opportunity to train for careers in park management, and undertake to compensate Inuit financially for any economic losses that may arise from the operation of the parks.

Because of the high cost of travel to Nunavut, the number of visitors to Canada’s new northern parks is not expected to jump sharply as a result of the agreement.

At the Ayuittuq park reserve, for instance, the average annual number of visitors is about 400, with most visitors arriving in the summer months for hiking trips.

“We’ll likely have a slight increase this year, compared with last year,” chief park warden Richard Cherepak said this week.

Public safety, ecosystem conservation and cultural integrity are the central components of visitor orientation at the Auyuittuq park reserve, he said.

Work is also beginning this summer to begin monitoring the impact of visitors on the park’s ecosystem.

“It’s a longer term project,” Cherepak said. “We’re looking to see over the long term if there’s a change. At some point in the future there may be a need to say, ‘You can only hike on this side of the river, or we only allow groups of this many people to enter the park at any one time.’

“But we’re many many years away from doing that kind of thing.”

Negotiations for a proposed national park at Wager Bay are still ongoing.