NTI ponders next step in shrimp war

The president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. says his organization is ready to look at taking the next step in its battle with the federal government over northern shrimp quotas in Davis Strait.

That’s because on Dec. 20, NTI received a letter from Geoff Regan, the minister of Fisheries and Oceans, rejecting complaints made by NTI that DFO’s recent shrimp allocation decisions are inconsistent with the spirit of the Nunavut land claim agreement.

“We were waiting for good news and this is not good news. I told him outright that they are not complying with the land claims agreement because of the unfair allocations and very poor co-ordination,” NTI president Paul Kaludjak said in an interview last week.

Kaludjak delivered that message to Regan, and to Andy Scott, the minister of Indian affairs and northern development, in a letter, and in face-to-face meetings last October.

In his October letter, Kaludjak suggested at least three options that NTI and the Government of Nunavut could pursue if Ottawa continues to reject Nunavut’s demands:

• “an aggressive mobilization of the rights of Inuit” that would use Article 5 of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement (which gives Inuit the right to participate in wildlife management) to force the creation of a separate, Nunavut-run management system for Nunavut’s inshore fishery;

• ask the Government of Nunavut to refer a series of fisheries allocation questions to the courts, used the Nunavut Legal Questions Act;

• ask the Government of Nunavut to set up a public inquiry that would look at the legal, political, bureaucratic and “fish industry” aspects of fish quota allocations in Nunavut’s adjacent waters, and related problems impeding Nunavut’s fishery.

Last September, Regan approved a shrimp quota adjustment that gives 66.7 per cent of a recent increase to Nunavut interests, well below the 85 to 100 per cent allocation that Nunavut has been demanding for years.

This follows a major quota decision in May of 2003, where DFO announced a 2,127-tonne increase in the northern shrimp quota, but gave only 1,000 tonnes — about 51 per cent of the increase — to Nunavut interests.

Most of the rest — 940 tonnes — went to southern interests, and 187 tonnes was allocated to Nunavik’s Makivik Corp.

NTI and the GN have already asked a federal court judge to overturn that quota decision. The case was tried in Iqaluit last December, with a decision expected in a couple of months.

But in the meantime, Kaludjak says NTI’s board is ready to start looking at ways of taking the fight to another level.

“Our next step is to look at the next avenue we can take,” Kaludjak said.

At this point, it’s not clear what that next step will be, but it could involve one or more of the actions threatened in Kaludjak’s October letter.

And NTI also plans to do more aggressive lobbying in Ottawa, including members of Parliament on all sides of the House of Commons.

Kaludjak said that because the Liberal government “continues to be unfair to us,” they’ll seek support from opposition members.

Meanwhile, Kaludjak said he’s also doing some work patching up some of Nunavut’s internal differences on fisheries development.

This week, he travelled to Pangnirtung and Qikiqtarjuaq with Ben Kovic, the president of the Baffin Fisheries Coalition, on a “peace” mission.

Kaludjak said they will meet with hunters and trappers organizations and fishing companies in the two communities who want to leave the BFC and develop their own independent turbot fisheries.

That kind of disunity makes it difficult for him to lobby on behalf of Nunavut-wide interests, Kaludjak said.

“We need them to help us become stronger, where they work together for the benefit of not just one community, but all the communities in the area of the Baffin region.”