Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Dec. 10th, 2020

[Adamie Delisle Alaku]

Thank you very much for that.

We are being restricted more and more in our abilities to harvest. I'll take the example of polar bears. Polar bears are a great source of healthy food for our community, but we are at a clash with scientists. We are saying that polar bear populations are healthy, and then the trends that are projected say that polar bears are not healthy.

We are tremendously restricted on our beluga quotas, and these are a source of tremendously healthy food. Belugas are known to have selenium, which combats mercury levels.

Right now we are going towards a very restrictive caribou harvest going forward, knowing that the Leaf River herd is the only herd that we are harvesting. As President Lampe mentioned, the George River herd is in a critical state, and we do not wish for the Leaf River herd to go in that same direction. We will need to safeguard that herd, and we will need to maybe even look at caribou herding, much like they do in Scandinavia.

We are very restricted in terms of our ability to harvest.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you. That's helpful.

Mr. Eetoolook, could you speak to that as well, about what sort of resources you need and what the concerns are around wildlife monitoring and management?

You just talked as well about the decline in the animals with climate change. I'm just wondering how all those things are coming together with the changing migration. What is it that would help look at that and support more sustainability in your area?

[James Eetoolook]

As you know, all the herds in North America were in decline this year, last year and the year before. In order to increase the harvest level, the government has to do a survey of the animal on the total allowable harvest. Sometimes the survey doesn't come out too well. There are a lot of things to take into consideration for the survey, anything that has contributed to the decline of the animal, man-made or man encounters. The biggest problem has been when they changed the migration of the caribou. These are the types of things we face daily and yearly up here.

Also, with the lack of presence of a federal government such as food inspectors, there is a lot of wildlife that we can trade with the other people, but the government says it's not inspected by the proper system. It hampers our trade quite a bit up here in the north.

In terms of most of our diet, such as caribou, narwhal and polar bear, in some communities the polar bear quota is almost down to zero. These are the kinds of things we face every day; otherwise, they would help the nutrition in the north. This is our main diet, anything that is.... Man encounters are the biggest problem up here in the north. Hopefully the population of animals will increase again over time, but it takes longer now than in previous years because of man encounters with the wildlife. The migration pattern changes have a lot to do with the decline of the animal.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you very much for that remarkable testimony from all of our witnesses. It's almost tragic that we have to suspend now during this meeting, but I think there's an excellent suggestion from Ms. Jones and we'll talk about inviting you all back. It looks as though we'll be on a bit of a break now for a few weeks.

Mr. Alaku, Mr. Lampe and Mr. Eetoolook, thank you so much.

Thank you to the members of our committee and those who sat in, and to all our staff. I hope you have an excellent holiday season and a merry Christmas if you're celebrating. We'll see you all, including our witnesses, I hope, in the new year.

Thank you very much.

The meeting is adjourned.