QIA seeks Inuit-owned lands in mineral-rich Katannilik Park

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

The Qikiqtani Inuit Association is using a little-known part of the Nunavut land claims agreement to take over parts of Katannilik Park that surround an area rich in minerals, against the wishes of community leaders in Kimmirut.

Community leaders are concerned the move will open the area to possible mine development, and reduce local tourism.

Joe Arlooktoo, Kimmirut’s mayor, sent a letter recently to QIA asking them to abandon the project, only to hear that the Inuit organization is going to proceed with negotiations for ownership of the selected park lands.

“I feel the park might be jeopardized by changing its boundaries,” Arlooktoo said in an interview this week, through an interpreter. “I want the park to stay as it is.”

Arlooktoo’s request is backed up in a March 17 letter co-signed by some members of the committee that QIA set up to choose parcels of land to be designated as Inuit owned lands, under the control of the QIA.

One of those who signed was Maliktuk Lyta, chair of the Mayukalik Hunters and Trappers Organization. Itee Temela, park advisory committee representative, also signed. Arlooktoo signed the letter as the community’s QIA representative.

The letter’s clear request to maintain the park boundaries has unleashed a debate between the two sides over who rightly represents the community, and how to best preserve the popular park.

Katannilik Territorial Park is a hunting and fishing area for local residents, stretching from Pleasant Inlet near Kimmirut, to the south shore of Frobisher Bay. Tourists visit the park mainly in the summer, when they can canoe down the Soper River and Valley.

In 1992, the federal government designated the park as a national heritage site, for its “cultural significance in the lives of Inuit, its natural beauty and its countless opportunities for recreation,” according to the Nunavut Parks web site.

But QIA claims the government of Nunavut has no right to refer to the Katannilik area as a park.

“It’s a non-existent park,” said Terry Audla, executive director of QIA. “It’s not an established park. It’s not legislated.”

Audla said the residents of Kimmirut, including the mayor, identified certain parcels of land that they wanted to trade with federal government in the 1990s, before and after the land claim ratification.

Those lands are an estimated 25 per cent of the Soper Valley, running from the south side of Mt. Joy to nearby Kimmirut. They surround a deposit of lapis lazuli, protected as Inuit-owned lands. The semi-precious gemstone is found in only a few other regions in the world, including Afghanistan.

Audla says requests from residents of Kimmirut forced the federal government to agree to put aside those areas within the proposed park, before the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement was finalized in 1993.

The reserved land was highlighted under NLCA article 8.3.11. The article states that the designated Inuit organization can exercise their right to select those federal parcels of land – if the park wasn’t established before the land claim was ratified.

Then, QIA was to negotiate a trade with the federal government in exchange for Inuit-owned lands. A committee of Kimmirut residents picked the near-equivalent of land to offer in the trade, from an area running along the south side of Baffin Island.

However, the government of Nunavut established Katannilik Park in May 2002, under an umbrella Inuit impacts and benefits agreement, despite QIA’s insistence that they didn’t have a mandate to do so.

Audla said the community has told QIA for years that they believe the land trade would give Inuit more control over the land.

“It’s something in the land claim that’s been agreed to,” he said. “This is probably the most specific right in the land claim. It’s only right that it be carried out.”

Audla rejected rumours that they were pushing to open the area to mining development. The QIA is under no obligation to disclose what they intend to do with the land.

David Monteith, the territorial director of parks and conservation areas, said the government supports QIA’s right to select those lands.

He said they learned about QIA’s project in November, and held a meeting in March with community members to make sure residents were aware that they could protect the selected lands without making the trade.

“We wanted to go into the community… to make sure the community is armed with the appropriate information to arrive at a decision,” Monteith said.

QIA has yet to set a date for their upcoming meeting with the federal government about the land exchange. Members of their lands and resources committee in Kimmirut have requested they wait for further consultation meetings with the community.