Fur flies over fur marketing
GNWT responds to charges its marketing serves no real purpose
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Published Monday, February 9, 2015
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The territorial government has responded to criticism over its recent trade mission to Asia where it said that part of the objective was to market NWT fur.
Jessica Florio and Sadetlo Scott modelling NWT fur last year in Yellowknife. Some say the GNWT has been actively promoting an industry that doesn�t need more buyers, but more trappers. - NNSL file photo |
Cultural educator and on-the-land teacher David Radcliffe recently commented on the matter in a News/North column ("GNWT mismanaging fur industry," Jan. 26).
Radcliffe said he is outraged by that and also said the Government of the Northwest Territories has no business using taxpayers' dollars to fund an already taxpayer subsidized industry.
Unless and until more trappers are allowed to trap, he said the NWT fur industry is already maxed out.
"The amount of fur we produce is a miniscule amount in the world's need for fur," Radcliffe said.
"All our fur is bought up first because it is the best quality fur in the world."
Radcliffe said there is no need to market NWT fur because the territory can not meet the demand for it.
"When you go to the fur auction in Winnipeg, the largest in Canada, our fur goes first. It's like us going to China and saying, 'Buy our fur, buy our fur' and then when they come to buy we say 'Sorry that's all we have."
Leslie Campbell, senior communications officer for the department, responded in an e-mail saying that by marketing the brand, the government gets the best prices it can from the national and international marketplace.
She stated that Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur (GMVF) regularly and consistently achieves top auction prices for a number of species of fur, including the highly sought-after marten.
"We achieve these prices because we market out products under the GMVF brand," she stated.
Producers of high-end, luxury consumables market their brands to differentiate their products from the competition and obtain the best prices possible, Campbell stated.
Radcliffe also said the GNWT is doing virtually nothing to expand the fur trapping industry.
He said the number of trappers has gone down steadily in the NWT since 1967.
Radcliffe said that according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources website there were about 1,800 trappers that year. Last year, according to the GNWT, there were 700 trappers in the territory.
Furthermore, Radcliffe said that it is virtually impossible for a non-aboriginal to get a trapping licence.
"Somebody like me who's been here for 53 years, all my life, I can't get a trapping licence," Radcliffe said.
"The way the new wildlife act is structured, what ENR requires is approval for a hunters and trappers association or from a band council."
Radcliffe said he has applied 26 years in a row to the Yellowknives Dene First Nation for a trapping licence.
"Most of the time they don't respond. I've only gotten three responses ever and if there's no response, the government considers that a no. If the band does respond, they respond with a no."
Campbell stated the GNWT continues to support youth trapping and school does respond, they respond with a no."
Campbell stated the GNWT continues to support youth trapping and school programs to expand the base of the trapping industry and the traditional economy.
Radcliffe said he doesn't watch the TV show Fur Harvesters NWT, but he does not understand why the GNWT felt it was necessary to take the show's star, Andrew Stanley, with them on their recent trade junket to China and Japan.
"Can you imagine the government paying him to go to China to be an ambassador for the NWT. There's nothing wrong with the guy but he's not an ambassador.
He's a trapper. You're not going to put him in a suit and tie and take him to a business meeting with Chinese fur buyers who spend tens of millions of dollars and hope that they are going to buy any more fur."
In her e-mail, Campbell defended the decision and praised Stanley.
"Mr. Stanley is an excellent ambassador for the trapping industry in the NWT and personifies another unique aspect of life in the North. His involvement in the trade mission to China and Japan, being an actual producer, bought an added dimension to the marketing of the brand," she stated.
Mark Taylor, the trapper relations manager with the Fur Harvesters Auction, based in North Bay, Ont., said he understands why the GNWT would want to market its fur even if the supply is finite.
"The intention would be to try to get more buyers in China interested in, and buying, NWT fur so that the price would increase," Taylor said.
"They are trying to get new buyers that did not know about NWT fur, increasing demand and upping the price per skin."
Taylor agrees that some NWT fur is considered the best in the world.
"Marten, lynx, wolverine, wolves are some of the best fur that comes out of North America," he said.
Taylor said that it is his organization that actually sells NWT furs. He explained that the process is a little bit complicated.
"The territorial government has a program set up whereby they pay trappers an advance for their furs, they then send the furs to us on consignment. When the fur is sold we send the money back to the NWT and then the disperse that money if the fur sold for more than the trappers advance."
Radcliffe said that amounts to an artificial marketplace, calling it unfair to taxpayers and people who want to trap but can't get a licence.
