Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

NUNAVUT
Parks Canada will be holding a series of consultations over the next six months in communities residing near Nunavut's four national parks in order to explain proposed changes to existing park regulations, including those involving the use of firearms.

Rob Prosper, executive director for the north for Parks Canada, said the new regulations will continue to prevent general visitors from carrying a loaded firearm in the national parks. Rather, the key proposal is to identify specific categories of people eligible for a permit to carry a firearm for their own and their client's protection.

Those eligible would include bear monitors, beneficiary and non-beneficiary guides, researchers (in places where bear monitors are not available), commercial sport hunting guides travelling through the parks and members of the Department of National Defence.

The new regulations will also recognize aboriginals exercising their right to conduct harvesting and related activities in national parks, said Prosper.

Stevie Aulaqiaq, a guide with Iceberg Outfitting in Qikiqtarjuaq, said he hasn't heard of the upcoming consultations and proposed changes to the regulations, but he likes the idea of guides being eligible to carry firearms in nearby Auyuittuq National Park. He said he hasn't bothered to offer tours inside the park for several years because of the difficulty in getting permission to carry a firearm, especially in cases of a polar bear attack.

"If there's a polar bear coming right towards (myself and a client), there's no way we could scare it away," he said.

Prosper said the objective of the regulations is to increase personal security, and in doing so, hopefully increase the number of visitors and the economic opportunities for the park and the nearby communities. He added that keeping the responsibility for protecting visitors from bears in the hands of experienced guides protects the bears as well.

The regulations would replace the existing National Parks Wildlife Regulations first enacted in 1981 with a new National Parks of Canada Wild Animals Regulations.

Besides the proposed regulations regarding the use and transportation of firearms in the parks, other provisions would include prohibitions for possessing wild animals as well as their body parts, and the removal of nests and other dwellings. Another proposed provision focuses on proper food storage so as to reduce encounters with wild animals.

Consultations with Inuit groups, outfitters and other stakeholders in the communities residing near Nunavut's four national parks – Auyuittuq, Sirmilik, Quttinirpaaq and Ukkusiksalik – are scheduled for this August to December. Specific times and dates have yet to be announced.

After the consultations and depending on the input received from these groups, the regulations and any adjustments will be published in the Canada Gazette followed by a 90-day period for additional public input. Once this period has concluded, Parks Canada can move ahead with implementing the final version of the proposed regulations. Prosper expects this could be as soon as the fall of 2012.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.