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Clyde River closer to getting big park Territorial protection near community would preserve cultural sites and wildlife
Myles Dolphin
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 23, 2013
KANGIQTUGAAPIK/CLYDE RIVER
Another hurdle has been cleared to allow the creation of a massive territorial park near Clyde River.
Negotiations to create the site stretching westward from Baffin Bay to the Barnes Ice Cap - which would be roughly 16,000 square kilometres and three times the size of Prince Edward Island - began more than 30 years ago when the Northwest Territories government conducted a tourism study of the Baffin region.
Feasibility work on the proposed boundaries, which began in 2001, was completed in December 2012 and the Government of Nunavut has received permission from the Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA) and the hamlet to proceed to the master planning phase and the establishment of a co-management committee.
One Clyde River elder, Loseeosee Aipellee, has been instrumental in the process but says he won't be completely satisfied until the entire project is completed.
"We've been working on this for a long while," he said. "It's very important to us because it has a lot of potential, especially the master plan for tourism. There is still a lot of work to do."
There is certainly no shortage of tourism potential in the region.
The surroundings feature an abundance of wildlife and majestic landscapes such as inlets, glaciers and icebergs.
Ten fjords can be found within a 100-kilometre radius of the community and the area is under consideration for nomination by UNESCO as part of a World Biosphere Reserve, according to the Nunavut Parks website.
The establishment of a territorial park would protect the land, archeological sites and wildlife near the community and offer tourism and recreation opportunities.
David Monteith, director of territorial parks for the government of Nunavut, said the process was bogged down when the Northwest Territories was divided with the creation of Nunavut, but has picked up steam in recent years.
"Following the work done by John Laird (the consultant who wrote the original feasibility study in 2001) in assessing the potential for tourism in the area, we contracted Aarluk Consulting Inc. to continue the process and develop a resource inventory," he said.
"That included documenting the Inuit relationship with the landscape, the archaeological sites, and various geographical topographic features and consulting the community about possible boundaries. Residents were quite insistent about including the fjords in the study area, as opposed to the land in the south, which they felt they wanted to keep for themselves."
After meetings with the QIA in December last year and more recently in April, the GN was provided with an agreement in principle, allowing them to proceed to the master planning stage.
"We went to cabinet to ask for their support of a park west of Clyde River and received it in December.
The master planning phase will dictate the exact size and boundaries of the park. We are now working with QIA to set up a co-management committee under the umbrella Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement (IIBA) for territorial parks in the Nunavut Settlement Area."
Because some of the land is owned by the federal government, the GN will have to request a land transfer at some point in the future.
Monteith said he is hoping to "get things moving along this year" by having the committee up and running and getting mineral assessment work underway.
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