Nunavik Parks: moving ahead

Councillors got a sneak preview of the logo that will be used to promote Nunavik’s park system at the Kativik Regional Government’s recent council meeting. The logo, now under review at Nunavik’s Avataq Cultural Institute, looks like a stylized black owl with wings and resembles images from Povungnituk’s early print shop.

In Kangiqsujuaq, shelters and an airstrip are being built this summer near Pingualuit Park, which is set to officially open for tourists in November. Rumour has it that avid pilot and movie star John Travolta has been invited to visit the park.

Meanwhile, the official status report on the Kuururjuaq Park project near Kangiqsualujjuaq and the Torngat Mountains, which contains a complete description of the proposed park, should be available later this month and the environmental and social impact statement is also underway; a joint Cree and Inuit archeology project is taking place this July for the Richmond Gulf and Clearwater Lake Park Project on the Eastern Hudson Bay and drafting of this project’s status report has begun.

The status report for Kuururjuaq will serve as the basis for public hearings on the park project, which should take place later this year.

In August 2004, Quebec Premier Jean Charest committed $10 million to a five-year deal designed to lead to a total of three provincial parks in Nunavik.

An administrative body within the KRG’s renewable resources department, called the Nunavik parks section, looks after Pingualuit and the other provincial parks planned for Nunavik and will eventually employ 40 people throughout the region.