ᓱᒃᑲᔪᒥᒃ ᖃᕋᓴᐅᔭᒃᑯᕈᓐᓇᐅᑎᖃᕐᐲᑦ? ᓱᒃᑲᔪᒧᐊᕐᓗᑎᑦ
ᑕᕆᔭᕋᓱᒃᑕᐃᑦ ᓱᒃᑲᐃᓗᐊᕐᐸ? ᐊᓯᓪᓕᕐᓗᒍ ᓱᒃᑲᐃᓂᕐᓴᒧᑦ ᑕᑯᒃᓴᐅᓇᕐᑐᒧᑦ
15th Jan 2019 – 10th Comment - HTO Chair Eric Ootuvak - Pond Inlet - Inuktitut
About
HTO Chair Eric Ootuvak; I agree with the mayor on his statement 100%. When there is research done for the mine, I think they are leaving details when they give their reports, when the research is being done guides help the researchers to this and that, and after the report is done the guides notice what about that detail?. And there is lots of dust and we notice it is effecting the number of fish and animals disappearing from the area.
Agrees with the mayor’s statement. Will make a statement for the HTO. Before the project began, they had monitors for terrestrial and marine wildlife, people walking around and helicopters, and provided money for monitoring too, and these people are doing reports and presentations on their monitoring to Baffinland first, and then Baffinland finally gives their reports to perhaps NIRB. He believes there is information that is being left out of the reports, need to keep a closer eye on Baffinland doing that. Since 2015 they have been transporting ore and the first time it was interesting to see all of the ships passing through, but no one heard Pond Inlet’s concerns that the ships should pass far away from the community. When the ships pass through they use a lot of ocean space, and they don’t seem to take hunters and their booth into consideration. The ore is in the Mary River area, where there are char, caribou, but they are leaving the area to escape the pollution and noise pollution. They already did a lot of pollution, will do more with the increase. When they will ship the additional 18 million tons more will create more pollution for their food. Mayor said they have 400 hunters, but this year a lot of people will have no food because they have not caught narwhal. Those with meat caches do not have as much and will not be able to sell some now. The freezer should be full. All the meat is gone before the end of October. Community members have suffered a lot economically, and they will not be compensated. Char does not come anymore because of the Baffinland ships. Do not see the char in open water like they used to. The HTO does not support the Phase 2 at all because of wildlife disappearing and the long distances the hunters need to do to go hunt. The hunters are the most neglected by Baffinland. Hunters can claim compensation for game loss to QIA, but those who sell narwhal skin will not be compensated. So much money used by the hunters to go hunting, still today. We are losing too much as community members. Last year the motion that they made, not supporting the Phase 2 proposal, he was pretty mad that they agreed to it in spite of the motion.
