Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Cambridge Bay (Mar 18/02) - Jobs were lost. Money is on the line. And an emerging economy is in danger.

Federal food inspectors cancelled a Cambridge Bay commercial muskox hunt recently when field processing facilities failed to meet health standards.

Now more than 26 workers who were scheduled to hunt, butcher and transport meat are out of their temporary work. The greatest impact was felt at Cambridge Bay's Kitikmeot Foods.

The meat processing company built and marketed the muskox meat business and now finds itself with no Cambridge Bay muskox to sell. All the meat harvested was to go to Kitikmeot Foods.

"It will affect things at our plant," said Kitikmeot Foods manager Calvin Schindel, who added the plant already let six people go.

The muskox makes up about one-third of Kitikmeot Foods' business, so Schindel needs to find another supplier or things look pretty bleak. The plant has been working toward European Union certification so it can export overseas.

Schindel hasn't figured out yet how much money the cancellation is going to cost Kitikmeot Foods. "I have just been so busy trying to access this other meat and lining up other jobs for my people here to work," he said.

There is another muskox harvest taking place on Banks Island, north of Paulatuk. That hunt is organized through the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, hundreds of kilometres away from Cambridge Bay.

"We will be buying some muskox from them," said Schindel. Failing to supply established clients with meat could be disastrous. "Over the years we have built up quite a clientele of people and you just can't stop selling the muskox," he said.

It has taken years to gain the trust of restaurants and wholesalers, he said. "I don't want to lose those."

The Ekaluktutiak Hunters and Trappers Association (HTA) planned to kill 400 muskoxen about 60 kilometres northwest of Cambridge Bay. The butcher shop has a contract with the hunters and trappers.

The carcasses were supposed to go first to a specially constructed abattoir site to be processed in a quonset-style processing tent.

Last year Kitikmeot Foods operated the abattoir but this year it was the charge of the HTA.

"The federal inspectors inspected it and found that it didn't meet their standards," said Cambridge Bay wildlife officer Shane Sather. Shortcomings included rusty equipment and damage to the building. So until a facility is set up with running hot and cold water the operation is shut down.

"The local HTA decided they just couldn't do it this quick and so they decided to not do it this year," said Sather.

Money and man-hours were already spent setting up the camp.

But the change was overdue. Federal inspectors had been lenient on the hunting camp for four years. "He just came to the point where enough is enough," said Sather.

The hunters and trappers planned to move the plant to an updated location in time for this year's hunt but couldn't get land-use permits in place on time. And upgrades will take some cash.

"There's got to be washrooms and hot and cold water and proper facilities for washing and handling of people and the carcasses," said Sather.

Cambridge Bay Mayor Keith Peterson said the hamlet helped the hunters collect about $8,000 to upgrade equipment.

Peterson was offering samples of muskox meat in Toronto last week at a mining show. He said everybody loved it. "But it's got to be federally inspected if you want to export down south and around the world," he said.