The Nunavut Planning Commission is holding technical hearings in Iqaluit this week where stakeholders will talk about how to manage caribou herds and their habitat, and the crucial caribou calving grounds

Barren ground caribou. All caribou herds are declining in Canada.The Nunavut Planning Commission is holding technical hearings in Iqaluit this week where stakeholders will talk about how to manage caribou herds and their habitat, and the crucial caribou calving grounds
Photo Credit: Canadian Wildlife Service

Caribou or development? Question debated in Arctic

For years there has been concern about the rapidly declining caribou herds across the country.

According to World Wildlife Fund-Canada, The Bathurst herd in the Northwest Territories, (NWT) for example, has dropped from 472,000 individuals in 1987 to 35,000 in 2012, and the Baffin Island herd is down 95 per cent, to only 5,000 individuals.

The same situation applies to the Bluenose East herd of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.  Their numbers have dropped from an estimated 186,000 in 2003 to fewer than 40,000 in 2015.

While caribou herds undergo massive natural fluctuations in herd sizes, that alone can’t explain the variation, which is also being blamed on disturbance from human activity.

There was much concern therefore in the far north when it was learned that the Nunavut Impact Review Board had given approval to a Vancouver-based copper-mining company to begin exploratory drilling in the Bluenose East caribou herd calving grounds.

This was given without public consultation.

A diamond drilling rig on the tundra. This photograph was included among Tundra Copper Corp.’s application documents gathered by the Nunavut Impact Review Board last spring.
A diamond drilling rig on the tundra. This photograph was included among Tundra Copper Corp.’s application documents gathered by the Nunavut Impact Review Board last spring. © Tundra Copper Corp

Several groups were opposed to the plan including many aboriginal groups and the neighbouring Northwest Territory Department of the Environment and resources.  The range of the Bluenose East herd extends well into that territory.

On the far side of Nunavut, in Iqaluit, meetings are being held this week to try to establish a balance between development and protection for the herd, and not just the Bluenose east herd, but for several herds that range into neighbouring provinces like Saskatchewan and Manitoba, but return to Nunavut each summer for calving.

The Bluenose East caribou herd range extends deep into the Northwest Territory (dark green line), but the calving ground are entirely in Nunavut Territory (light green area).
The Bluenose East caribou herd range extends deep into the Northwest Territory (dark green line), but the calving ground are entirely in Nunavut Territory (light green area). © Govt NWT- ENR

Another contentious part of the equation is that native groups are discussing severe cutbacks in their hunting of caribou to avoid damaging the sustainability of the herds.

“I don’t think it’s right that people have to have food off their supper tables so development can happen,” said Codzi, who was quoted by the CBC, and who is president of the Ayoni Keh Land Corporation in Colville Lake, N.W.T. “It just seems really irresponsible.”

It may be a difficult task for the week long meeting to come up with a satisfactory land use plan.

The governments of Nunavut, and the NWT have both given submissions to the Nunavut Land Use Planning Commission that they oppose exploration and development anywhere in the calving grounds.

On the other side, the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines has a presentation questioning the boundaries for the calving grounds.  It also notes the enticing aspect of jobs in a region of high unemployment and says its plan allows for development without disturbing the caribou.

Norman Barichello, a former caribou biologist with the Yukon government is quoted by the CBC saying, “We should really make the decision of whether we want caribou or not and if we want them to stay, I think we should guard against intrusion into these very sensitive areas of their range.”

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