Coral Harbour (July 14/04) - The community of Coral Harbour is looking for more support for the caribou harvest industry.

Late last month, representatives of the hamlet, the hunters and trappers organization, Development Corporation, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the territorial government met to discuss the harvest's future.

Johnny Ningeongan, Mayor of Coral Harbour, organized a meeting of stakeholders to discuss the future of the caribou harvest. - Neils Christensen/NNSL photo

"We wanted to make our stakeholders aware of the situation the harvest is in," said Coral Mayor Johnny Ningeongan.

Ningeongan explained that when the Development Corporation took over the industry, it incurred many costs and some bills are still outstanding.

"We have to almost start from the beginning to build up the hunt," he said.

Richard Connelly, interim manager for the Development Corporation, said part of the problem was that they didn't know how much it would cost to start the industry on an international scale.

"We had new international guidelines to work under. We had to change almost every aspect of the hunt," Connelly said.

Ningeongan said through the meetings, all the stakeholders are now able to work together to make sure the caribou harvest is a viable industry for the community.

The industry creates about 70 seasonal jobs and brings in about $700,000 into the economy. Ningeongan added that the harvesting also supports the Kivillaq Arctic Foods in Rankin Inlet.

"The bottom line is the hunt is viable, but there needs to be better relations between all the stakeholders," he said.

Connelly said the community faces a number of challenges with the hunt. He said they need to look at a balance between creating a viable business and having a sustainable caribou population. He also added they need to look at ways to be more efficient.

By having the stakeholders come together to discuss the issues, Connelly said they were able to all work in the same direction.

"The support was always there for the industry, but when you have all the parties working in different areas there is no focus," he said.

While the industry faces some problems, Ningeongan said there is some good news. The government has made a commitment to work with the community to count the count next spring to establish the quota system.