Iqaluit (Jan 15/07) - Pierre Trudeau likened the relationship between Canada and the United States to that of an elephant and a mouse.

That elephant is preparing to roll over on Nunavut's polar bear sport hunt, and the people of the high Arctic are the ones laying in the path.

Sport hunt kills by community for 2005/06: Cambridge Bay 4 Taloyoak 3 Arctic Bay 10 Grise Fiord 9 Resolute 18 Qikiqtarjuak 8 Clyde River 6 Pond Inlet 8 Pangnirtung 1 Arviat 6 Cape Dorset 2 Coral Harbour 11 Source: Nunavut Department of the Environment

Resolute had 18 sport hunters kill a polar bear last year. They brought desperately needed dollars to an under-employed community.

Nathaniel Kalluk is one of the people behind Nanook Outfitting in Resolute. If the United States goes through with its proposed listing of polar bears as a threatened species, the scores of American hunters that come to Resolute for a trophy will not bother to make the trip.

His company does about 20 hunts a year, and the hunts help support the entire community.

"Most of our hunters are from the U.S.; they stay in hotels, buy carvings. One hunter is worth between $27,000 and $28,000. It helps everyone. Elders make the caribou-fur suits the hunters wear and we pay $1,200 for them. Plus, we pay between $2,500 and $3,000 each (to local residents) for the polar bear tags," said Kalluk.

The American proposed ban on all imports of polar bear trophies will leave Kalluk scrambling for clients.

"If it goes through, I don't know what will happen, we might have to try to get hunters from Europe," he said.

Kalluk, who has spoken to elders about polar bear populations, doesn't think the species is endangered.

"When I was younger, they couldn't find any polar bears here. Right now, my older brother, who has hunted all his life, he feels they are much more abundant now," said Kalluk.

This is one case where traditional knowledge and science are saying the same thing. The Polar Bear Technical Committee - a group of polar bear biologists from around the world - states that the total of the Lancaster Sound population is 2,541. That area includes Arctic Bay, Grise Fiord and Resolute, and has a total quota of 85 bears for 2006/07.

In Resolute, the bear tags are distributed to the community, and Kalluk buys them from the tag holder. In Grise Fiord, they do things differently.

"Our outfitting licence is owned from the local HTO, and they set up a development committee to distribute and manage the licence," said Grise Fiord assistant SAO Marty Kuluguqtuq.

Grise Fiord had nine sport kills last year, and the overwhelming majority of the hunters were American.

"Over the last three or four years, about 98 per cent of the clients have been Americans. They are very important to us," said Kuluguqtuq.

"It is a great influx for our economy, everything from local accommodations to the employment of unemployed people. It also helps us develop the traditional skills," said Kuluguqtuq.

Grise Fiord is also looking to other countries for well-heeled hunters who want a nanook for their wall. The hunt alone costs between $25,000 and $30,000 in Grise Fiord, and the hunters have to pay for their own flights as well.

"We'll have to find other clients, from Europe and Mexico," said Kuluguqtuq. "It is easier to work with the Americans. They are the ones who seem to be coming."