Woman turned down for turbot and shrimp quota

I am writing this letter as the owner of Jencor Fisheries Ltd. This letter is in formal protest of the ongoing situation with Baffin Fisheries Coalition, who have been negotiating for the use of a foreign vessel and the operations involved.

In addition I will provide insight into my dealings with the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board in Iqaluit.

I am the sole owner of Jencor Fisheries Ltd. and I have been trying to get my enterprise up and running for the last year and a half. My sole purpose in setting up this company was to show by example that it is viable for Inuit to be actively involved in the Nunavut fishery.

As a beneficiary, I would like the NTI president and other Nunavummiut to know what problems I have been running into throughout that time.

First of all, I have received support from different organizations and levels of government, including other Inuit organizations and for this I am grateful. I would like to thank the public from all parts of Nunavut for supporting and encouraging me right up to present day.

Before I begin I would like you to know, I support BFC and NWMB in principle. BFC has been the main instrument in regards to the offshore and inshore fishery for the past several years. They have shown what can be done in the new northern fishery.

I believe in some areas they have exceeded what might have taken years for an organization to do, for example in the training and hiring of Inuit, supporting exploratory fisheries, and coordination with other fishery organizations, to name a few. I support the jobs it has created in Nunavut, which are really hard to get, especially for unilingual Inuit.

I support the NWMB in principle. I understand what great accomplishments they have made to date. I know it is not easy to run management boards in Nunavut, where Nunavut has a very big wildlife base and many lives are dependent on wildlife. I understand the NWMB has about 25 communities to look after in one office, and not to mention the overload of work they have to do, plus the shortage of employees it has. For many of these reasons, I have deep respect for what NWMB stands for in Nunavut.

Having said the above, here are some of the serious problems I would like to address. I will first address my dealings with BFC.

BFC gave me the run-around
I first wrote them a proposal to fish in June 13, 2003, and then I met with the board on June 19, 2003. At that time, I had requested turbot and shrimp quota rights from the board members. In the end, BFC wrote me a letter as to why they couldn’t do it. The letter in return guided me as to what needed to be done if I wanted to fish for BFC.

I have basically accomplished what they had requested. I wrote another proposal to fish for the coalition at the beginning of this year, in February, 2004. I received a couple of letters and e-mails regarding questions they had, and more specific questions. I responded to them two out of three times, but in the last e-mail I received, I could not believe the questions they had asked for.

The questions were like “What price will we have to pay for turbot being landed into Pangnirtung?” I believe the price could be negotiated once quota had been allocated, not before. It is my understanding this was how companies that fished for BFC in past years were treated. By that time, I knew I was getting the run-around with the BFC.

When I asked for turbot quota this year, I asked for 500 metric tonnes out of the 4,000 metric tonnes they have. I had assumed that if I asked for a smaller amount, I would have a better chance to receive the quota. I did not ask for any shrimp quota this year, as I wanted to concentrate with turbot quota.

Now, I might have a chance to get turbot quota from the South – I had to go south to get northern turbot quota. I have not received turbot and shrimp quota from the BFC or the NWMB up to this date.

I believe the BFC has received around 11 proposals to fish for their quota this year, most of them Canadians. I do not see why they have to go foreign, because Canadians are very capable of fishing Canadian quota. I understand the business part, where the business needs to stay above bankruptcy, but I also understand the need to support Nunavummiut, and if not them, then Canadians.

Plus, I’ve heard they have joined an agreement for leasing a vessel for two years. Why not just say royalties? The way I understand it, leasing could be just another term for royalties. Under the charter agreement, depending on the type of charter agreement, it may mean nothing.

One important fact I would like to point out, BFC does not represent all Nunavummiut, and I do not wish to be represented by them. My company is 100 per cent Inuit owned, and I have no southern partners.

No response from NWMB
My experiences with the NWMB are very similar as with BFC. I wrote my first proposal in January 2003 requesting turbot quota, and in May 2003 requesting the new shrimp quota that was allocated to Nunavut, and in March 2004 requesting turbot and shrimp quota. I wrote an appeal letter in December of 2003, for the allocation of the new turbot quota. I haven’t heard where this appeal process is up to today.

To this date, I have not received turbot or shrimp quota from the NWMB.

I met with the chairman on one occasion when the new 4,000 metric tonnes was given to Nunavut, and I asked him what I would need to do to receive the turbot quota. He told me it would go through the same process as always where they send applications out to whomever may be interested in this quota.

I never received any application or notice about it and in the new shrimp quota they received in May, 2003, I only found out through the grapevine one day before the deadline to put in a fishing plan and a proposal to fish. For anyone who lives in Nunavut and you want to start your own fishing business with turbot and shrimp, I doubt they will receive any support from NWMB.

I could understand it if it was benefiting the communities directly, then it would be very workable. I feel it is important to recognize NWMB has agreed to issue me an experimental snow crab license in Zones 0A, 0B and the Nunavut Settlement area. The problem is that without access to another species, it is next to impossible to fish this license, as the research into the crab fishery is limited at this time.

NWMB allocated the turbot and shrimp quota for three years, with this year being the last year. They will re-allocate all the quotas they have before next fishing season, but with NWMB solely supporting one organization, once again there will be no quotas allocated to other communities, to a company like mine, or to other companies who want to get started in the fishing industry. NWMB was the driving force in the creation of BFC, so it is then understandable that they are maintaining BFC’s monopoly in Zone 0A.

I don’t agree with conflicts, but I feel I have no choice but to address this matter. I have been considering writing this letter for quite some time. I believe it is important to let Nunavummiut know what I have been dealing with in attempting to start my own enterprise.

I am a strong believer in Nunavut and I want Nunavummiut to succeed in the fishing industry, but reality hits hard sometimes. I hope the NWMB and BFC will support Nunavummiut regardless of who they are and what they want to accomplish.

I am going to own a fishing vessel some day, with or without their help. It’s sad that there has to be a fight within Nunavut especially when the fishing industry is new to this part of the world.

And it is also sad if anyone new from Nunavut wants to go fishing for turbot and shrimp. They will not get support from BFC and NWMB, as NWMB has repeatedly announced they are in full support of BFC.

If turbot or shrimp quota is not given to Jencor Fisheries Ltd, then please give it to the other communities, where unemployment is really high. I do see where BFC and NWMB want to create jobs, but with the amount of Nunavut quota there is, they can create a lot more jobs out there.

Leesee Papatsie
Jencor Fisheries Ltd
Iqaluit