IQALUIT
Nunavut is working to develop a system to comply with the regulations that will allow Inuit-hunted sealskins to be exported to the European Union, but one Nunavut fashion designer says she can't even get enough Nunavut skins to produce the garments she sells.

A model wears clothing designed by Apex-based Rannva Erlingsdottir Simonsen at an October fashion show in Iqaluit. - Casey Lessard/NNSL photo

"Nunavut does not have enough sealskins for the local people to use for production, and it would be good for the industry to begin here," Apex-based Rannva Erlingsdottir Simonsen said. "I could buy 1,000 natural skins a year."

She said the government can only sell her about 200 skins per year, which means the rest need to come from Newfoundland to meet the demand for her products. Most of the Nunavut skins are used for mitts and smaller items to increase the number of items she can produce locally and mark with the Authentic Nunavut label.

The products she makes that use non-Nunavut skins or that are made in Montreal are labelled as made in Canada and designed in Nunavut.

"Bottom line, there's a big market there, but there's not enough skins," she said. "It would be better to have all of them from here to keep the money in the territory and create jobs."

In fact, this week the government had zero skins available. The territory only produces about 1,500 garment-quality skins per year, said Devin Imrie, the acting director of the Fisheries and Sealing Division.

"She's right," Imrie said, responding to Simonsen's charge that Nunavut doesn't produce enough skins to meet demand. "We're able to sell all of our dressed skins immediately upon producing them. Raw skins, we had one auction in North Bay this year, and after that auction, there were approximately 1,000 lower-quality skins remaining. That's normal regardless of species, and the lower-quality skins will be carried over to the auction in June.

"The supply has declined in the last three or four years to around 3,000 skins per year," Imrie said, noting the peak was around 9,000 before the European Union ban. "We don't really know what the cause of the decline in the number of pelts coming into our program is."

Nunavummiut get the best skins. The rest are destined for the Russian and Chinese markets.

"The low production we have right now is insufficient to sustain the market internationally," he said.

The government has been working to increase the number of skins coming back to Nunavut. After a Nunavut hunter brings in a sealskin, it is sent to the south to be dressed and sold at auction. The government buys a certain number of those back, and pays a flat rate of $50 to hunters even though pelts sell at an average price of $39 at auction, ensuring hunters get paid what they would have before the European Union ban forced prices down substantially.

The government expects the process to take another two years before Nunavut skins will be recognized as eligible for import into Europe as pelts or finished products. A bar code tag will be attached to every pelt to allow for tracing from community to consumer.

Simonsen wants to expand internationally, but the EU ban and lack of supply of Inuit-skins - as required under the expected exemption - could prevent her from selling her goods in Europe.

"Right now the market in the EU is effectively non-existent, but we're taking the long-term approach," Imrie said. "We're going to open that door if we can to make room for potential markets in the future."

That said, the government won't invest in promoting seal to Europe if production doesn't increase, he said, but remains committed to securing the exemption for Nunavut's Inuit hunters.

In the face of the limited supply, Simonsen plans to up production herself by hiring her own Inuit hunters.

Imrie said she would be able to use the government-managed bar codes if an Inuit hunter brings in her seals, even if she doesn't take the skins through the auction process.