Nunavut hunters cry foul over new polar bear management scheme
CBC
A new polar bear management system received an icy reception in Iqaluit Wednesday at a Nunavut Wildlife Management Board discussion on the polar bear harvest in the Gulf of Boothia region.
A recently approved credit-based system, the Harvest Administration and Credit System (HACCS,) offers no improvement over the existing quotas in place since 2005, said Ema Qaggutaq, the Kitikmeot Regional Wildlife Board's chairperson, at the management board meeting.
"The current polar bear management plan and HACCS continues to encourage the perception and management of polar bears as 'credits' and numbers. This contrasts Inuit views of polar bears as animate and responsive to how people think about, talk about and treat them," Qaggutaq said.
The Gulf of Boothia polar bear subpopulation — about 1,600 bears — boasts the highest density of polar bears in Nunavut.
Hunters in the region say the number of polar bears has risen and their physical condition is robust.
"Community members have reported they are encountering more Gulf of Boothia polar bears in the last two decades," Qaggutaq said.
"Hunters can tell the subpopulation is increasing because of how easy it is to encounter and or hunt bears, observations every mating season, encountering more females, young bears, and or females with ... up to four cubs, and bears going into meat caches," he said.
"Behaviour also changes when there are more bears. Polar bears are more aggressive when there are higher densities of them."
But now polar bear management is heading in the wrong direction, Qaggutaq said.
Hunters in Gjoa Haven, Sanirajak, Igloolik, Kugaaruk, Naujaat, and Taloyoak in the Gulf of Boothia region haven't met their full annual quota of 74 polar bears for years, according to information shared at the NWMB meeting. So they amassed a credit of 141 polar bears as of the 2019–2020 harvest season.
But with quota changes ahead, they may lose all their accumulated credits for the polar bears they didn't hunt.
That's because the new Harvest Administration and Credit System puts all credits back to zero when quotas are changed.
The reset of credits to zero for Boothia polar bear hunters without a big quota increase is "unfair," Qaggutaq said.
Hunter and Trapper Organization speakers from the affected communities said the Gulf of Boothia quota should be increased to 100.
When the federal government tabled its 2025 budget last month, it included a proposal that tax fraud experts say is long overdue — if also a belated acknowledgement that the Canada Revenue Agency has been repeatedly duped into paying out untold millions in bogus tax refunds to scammers.
Talking with an AI chatbot can successfully convince people to change their votes and could affect the outcome of future elections, according to a new study.
While some are writing wishlists for Santa Claus, a group of Newfoundland and Labrador youth are writing their wishlist for the provincial government.
A horse owner near Stewiacke, N.S., says the current shortage of hay in the province is putting pressure on her financially.
Victoria Volkanova was remembering Jewish resilience and courage by celebrating Hanukkah on Sunday.
Winnipeggers are still digging out from this past week’s winter wallop, but the wait for roadside assistance is almost over, according to the provincial motoring association.
When long-time journalist Cornelia Naylor picked up the first copy of her newly printed community newspaper this week, it wasn’t something she had ever expected to do.
The province's police watchdog is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a woman in Toronto Sunday.
Toronto police say a collision involving several vehicles in the city's east-end left one driver in life-threatening condition Sunday.
A church service in Stratford, P.E.I., brought together Christmas traditions from across the globe on Sunday.
On an extremely cold day, many people would prefer to stay home, cozy up under a blanket, and put on the TV, radio, or a favourite podcast.
In an era of Ring doorbells and No Soliciting signs, breaking the evening silence of a suburban London street can sometimes feel like a radical act.
For years, oil tanker traffic has been prohibited off the waters of northern British Columbia in order to protect environmentally sensitive coastlines from disaster.