NTI, Makivik begin work on mutual hunting rights

KUUJJUAQ — Some day in the not-too-distant future, Inuit hunters from Nunavik will legally hunt caribou and other wildlife in Nunavut.

“Everyone here’s been waiting for it,” said Johnny Peters, vice-president for renewable resources at Nunavik’s Makivik Corporation. “The way it’s been, if you have a polar bear hide or eider down, they come to take it.”

Peters is jubilant, because a recent letter signed by the two birthright organizations marks the first step towards changing laws that keep subsistence hunters in Nunavik from harvesting wildlife in Nunavut.

On Apr. 11, representatives from Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and Makivik signed a letter of understanding on recognizing reciprocal harvesting rights.

A working group will now look at what’s needed to reach a binding agreement on reciprocal hunting rights between the two regions.

Such an agreement will have to involve changes to Nunavut’s old and out-dated Wildlife Act, which was inherited from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999.

At present, although there’s nothing in the Nunavut land claim agreement to stop Nunavimmiut from hunting in Nunavut, territorial law says that Nunavik residents must live in Nunavut for two years before they can hunt.

A similar residency requirement on Nunavutmiut living in Nunavik has never been imposed in Nunavik.

Nunavimmiut have been quick to point out that several Anglican ministers who originally came from Nunavut are allowed to hunt on their land without constraints, while those who go to Nunavut from Nunavik still have to wait two years before they can go out to put meat on the table.

According to the letter of understanding between the two organizations, Nunavik will also look at a joint polar bear management agreement for bears in the Foxe Basin, Davis Strait and Hudson Strait areas.

Because Nunavik hunters harvest these polar bears without a special kind of agreement called a “memorandum of understanding,” or “MOU,” neither they nor their counterparts in Nunavut can mount any commercial hunt of the shared polar bear stocks.

“I think it has to be changed,” said Ben Kovic from the Nunavut Wildlife Board, who also attended the signing of the recent letter of understanding in Iqaluit.

Kovic said he was encouraged when he attended the annual general meeting of Nunavik’s hunting and trapping association in March, and heard its members’ voice support for a joint polar bear management plan.

But hammering out the details of the reciprocal harvesting agreement between Nunavut and Nunavik may take longer than many would like.

Nunavik’s own unresolved offshore claim is likely to slow the process, and revision of Nunavut’s Wildlife Act is expected to take at least two years.

The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement may also have to be amended so that it legally recognizes how and where Inuit from Nunavut may hunt in Nunavik.