Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Fort Resolution (July 18/05) - A Fort Resolution trapper calls a compensation offer for damages to his trapline a joke.

The mineral exploration company Tamerlane Ventures Inc. is offering to pay Eddie Lafferty's invoice of $1,259.91 for damage to his Pine Point trapline. A bulldozer clearing an old bush road disrupted a section of the trapline in February.

However, in a July 6 letter, the company stated payment depended on a letter being received from Lafferty releasing the company "from all claims and damages connected with this incident."

Lafferty wants to be compensated for lost income from the line, and has now turned the matter over to a lawyer.

"I'd just like to be treated fairly," he says. "There's lots of work and sweat you put into a trapline."

Lafferty estimates he lost 52 traps, 17 snares and 34 boxes totalling $1,259 - covered by the cheque offered to Lafferty - plus an undetermined amount in lost income.

Ross Burns, president and CEO of Tamerlane Ventures, sounds exasperated when contacted about the issue.

"I feel like I'm being blackmailed here," Burns says.

The company official says if Lafferty lost income last winter he should tell the company what it was. However, he says Lafferty refuses to talk to him unless the $1,259 is paid.

"I want to see what's coming at me here," Burns says, adding he feels he has made a fair offer.

Lafferty seems to want compensation for years into the future, he adds. "Does a bulldozer scare all animals off for 10 years?"

In the July 6 letter, Burns wrote that the company accidentally disrupted some traps and two or three were seen by the bulldozer operator, who noted there were no marks in the snow to indicate recent activity.

Lafferty says all the traps were marked with red ribbons in trees.

The company letter also notes there are no registered traplines in the area.

"Tamerlane has decided, in view of the fact that it had a permit to be in the area and that no trap lines were registered in the area, it has no legal requirement to deal with the problem of the lost traps and potential lost fur income," the letter states.

According to a spokesperson for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the trapline in question is not registered because it is not in an area where registration is required under the Wildlife Act.

"A letter is being sent to Tamerlane Ventures advising the company that the trapper in question is a licensed trapper in the Northwest Territories and is authorized to harvest fur-bearing animals in that area," the spokesperson says.