So I will be happy if you could let me finish what I have to present.
Just to add to Robin's presentation, for thousands of years, Inuit and seals have had a special relationship. Seals feed Inuit and help keep our dogs alive. We use their skins as clothing.
I myself am 65 years old and I have lived by surviving on the land, so I know what I'm talking about.
Oil and seal fat keep Inuit warm and light our dwellings. We also use seal bones and seal fur for arts and crafts. I know, because I've lived through this kind of life in our communities.
As part of Canadian society, we go to the Canadian government for your support to keep our livelihood going. It's the way we've always lived. We depend on sealing for our economy, and we appeal to you as our government to support us to keep this activity going.
Speaking from my own experience as an Inuit hunter who has hunted and lived by eating and living on seal, if it weren't for the seal that brought me up to this day, I would not be speaking to you today. Otherwise, I would not have really bothered to travel all this way here, to come to this committee meeting, but I feel that when we talk about banning the seal hunt, it affects my livelihood very much and the livelihood of the Inuit. It means a lot to me, so I am here to appeal to you today.
Seals are very nutritious and very important in the Inuit diet, in the past and also in the present, today. It is a very important source of vitamins, proteins, and minerals for our diet. In the olden days, Inuit lived on seal meat, as well as our dogs, which we fed, and the Inuit and their dog teams co-existed. We did that because we relied on seal meat for our nutrition. It is one of the best meat products that you can get from the land.
The skin, which is a byproduct, now has added value for the hunter because we can sell the seals on the market. I myself also have experience. In 1965 I bought myself a Ski-Doo just from sealskins. The selling of the skins from the hunt means the ability to purchase gas, ammunition, oil, parts for my snowmobile, and other items for my family. For these real reasons, the seal is most sought after, all year round.
Good jobs are limited in Nunavut, especially in the smaller communities, and the unemployment rate is very high. Unless a person has a high school education or post-secondary education, it is very difficult to find a good job. For myself, in my age group, that is so true. A lot of us didn't have a chance to be educated, so we're sort of left out. Education is the answer these days. If you have education, you have more chance of getting jobs. For our age group, that doesn't work.
Hunting continues to be an important part of the economy of the Inuit society, and it helps to offset the high cost of living in the north. This is so true for hunters at this time. Hunting is a costly subsistence activity, with few economic opportunities. Hunting allows us to be independent as a people. However, when you have a weak sealskin market, it forces Inuit to rely on social assistance, which takes away the Inuit pride.
With the world market of oil and gasoline going through the roof today, Nunavut is heavily affected, more than any other region. There are no road links to the south. If we had a road, it would reduce the high cost of transportation, but we don't have roads. The cost of living is much higher in the north than anywhere else in Canada.
Last year, over 6,000 raw sealskins were exported from Nunavut. This amounts to $530,000 in income for Inuit hunters in Nunavut alone.
When I was talking about the price of sealskins, the generated income for the Inuit seal hunters in Nunavut, I was referring to raw sealskins only, not the garments that you see the students wearing.
I also wanted to show you my hunting gear that I have worn for most of my life. They're all made out of sealskin products, traditionally tanned so that they're waterproof.
I have shown you my boot liners, which are waterproof, and two pairs of mitts. The gauntlets with the high tops I use when I'm building an igloo. With those, snow doesn't go into your arms. The shorter cuffs, the mittens that I showed you, are for butchering caribou or when I'm working around camp. These I use for my work when I go out hunting, when I'm out on the land. This is some of our survival hunting gear today, and we rely on those. I also have a pair of pants and a parka, which are also waterproof, that I use when I go hunting.
When we talk about clothing and the sealskins that we rely on for our traditional warm clothes when we're out hunting, I'm not talking about the pretty jackets and coats that you see around this building today. I'm talking about the functional hunting gear that has also kept us warm.
The value I was talking about does not reflect the added value earned by making the skins into garments worn by the students here in the audience. This industry generates millions of dollars and is starting to bring back the independence that Inuit once knew.
Unfortunately, animal rights activists have brought negative emotions to this issue. During the 1980s, anti-fur and animal rights activists lobbied primarily in Europe against the harp seal hunt taking place on the east coast, and it resulted in a European ban on young harp seal products in 1983.
The anti-fur and animal rights activity devastated the seal industry in Nunavut for Inuit. Inuit experienced a significant loss in income and could not finance their harvesting activities. This gave rise to a number of social problems that we still live with today. Whenever we've had animal rights groups lobbying in Ottawa, we have been very fortunate to have the Nunavut Sivuniksavut students lobbying on our behalf and speaking out for the Inuit.
The hunting of seals has been portrayed by animal rights activists as inhumane, but this is not true. How Inuit kill seals is to use all the parts of the seal for food, clothing, and other products. Inuit have always been very much into conservation, taking what they needed and not exceeding what their needs are.
The killing of seals appears, as portrayed by the activists, to be perceived in a different light than the slaughter of domestic livestock, but it is not different.
Mr. Chairman, please understand that Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated and the Government of Nunavut are working on policy in the sealing industry in Nunavut. Their key principles are the following four points.
Number one, the harvest must be sustainable. The resource must be protected from overharvesting and managed with a view to maintaining the place of seals within the ecosystem, which also includes good management of seals and seal hunting.
Number two, the whole animal must be used. All parts of the seal have a specific use and all of it should be utilized.
Number three, the harvest must be humane. All kills must be done cleanly and quickly.
Number four, the safety of the hunter must be taken into account.
Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated is involved with the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission's specific committees in providing a comprehensive look at the information on ringed seal populations and harvest statistics.
The seal hunt in Nunavut is very sustainable. There are more than two million ringed seals in Nunavut. It is estimated that about 80,000 animals are harvested annually. It is lower than historical harvesting numbers.
Ringed seals are distributed across the north and do not migrate south. Ringed seals have never been endangered, and Inuit do not have any concerns about the seal population. Inuit have never depleted the stock.
Regarding the climate that is changing, we are beginning to notice that the ice formation now is changing, and therefore it changes the behaviour of the seals. This winter alone, there are places where we normally had seals, but because the ice has been very slow to change in that area, we notice that they have moved to another area. That's something that we also have to keep in mind, that the population is flexible and it does migrate. It moves around.
To Inuit, seal hunting means fresh, healthy meat on the table. It means an earned income. It re-establishes the pride of hunters. It means new mitts, new boots, a new parka, among other things that we survive by.
We are pleased that the price of seal has gone up slightly, and it gives us hope that it may be sustainable for us to hunt seal again. When we talk about hunting seal for the skin, I want to reassure you that we do eat the meat. We do use the bones and all parts of the seal for other things as well. We're not just killing it for the seal skin to sell. We do conserve, and because the price of seal skin is going up, it doesn't mean that Inuit will go out and hunt double what they're killing now for their own sustenance. We believe in good management, and we have never overkilled because the price was right.
Lastly, Mr. Chairperson, I would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk to the committee. As Canadians we believe that the Canadian government will listen to our concerns, attempt to get to know our culture—the way we live—and come to appreciate us as a people living in Canada.
Also, Mr. Chairperson, I invite you to come north to see how the rest of Canada lives. You are most welcome to visit Nunavut.
When you come to the northern part of Canada you will see that we are a different people, separate from other Canadians. We live differently; we have our own language and our own culture; we live in a different geographic region than you do. We also hunt differently from what you perceive seal hunting to be. We do not use clubs when we hunt seals. Nowadays we have rifles, and sometimes we use the traditional harpoon to hunt seals.
Again, you are welcome to come to Nunavut to visit with us. We'll be very happy to help you out with some of the questions you may have about Inuit and seals.
These boots I am showing you are tanned sealskin waterproof “kamiks”, as we call them. In fact, they are really too hot to wear in this building right now.
Any questions you may have are welcome.
Thank you very much.