WWF-Canada welcomes progress on Nunavut Land Use Plan despite cancellation of public hearings

IQALUIT, NUNAVUT, July 18, 2018 — World Wildlife Fund Canada is pleased the Nunavut Land Use Plan (NLUP) process is finally moving forward after a year of delays, but is dismayed to learn that the Nunavut Planning Commission, due to lack of funding, will forgo public hearings in the Kivalliq and Kitikmeot regions and re-open the record for new written submissions instead. WWF-Canada is concerned this lack of public hearings will limit the ability of northern communities to fully participate in this important process.
 
Paul Crowley, WWF-Canada’s vice-president of Arctic conservation, says:
“A land use plan is a critical tool for capturing and assessing the cumulative impacts of development on communities and wildlife at the landscape level. Finalizing a plan for Nunavut is particularly important in light of the recent listing of barren-ground caribou under the Northwest Territories Species at Risk Act, since many of the herds listed spend much of their life cycle, including calving, in Nunavut. While we are encouraged to see the process moving forward, we are disappointed that the Nunavut Planning Commission has not been granted the funds for additional public hearings in the Kivalliq and Kitikmeot regions. WWF-Canada urges the government of Canada to commit sufficient funding toward the completion of the plan and give communities an accessible forum for their voices to be heard.”
 
About the NLUP:

• Work to develop a single, territory-wide land use plan for Nunavut began in 2007. Draft plans were presented in 2012, 2014 and 2016, but delays and lack of funding have slowed the process throughout.
• The Draft Nunavut Land Use Plan 2016 was initially intended to be subject to a single public hearing for the entire territory. The Nunavut Planning Commission later separated this into three separate hearings, one in each region of Nunavut. With this week’s announcement, hearings have now been cancelled at this stage in two of the three regions and replaced by written submissions.
• Effective land use planning is the most effective way to ensure that barren-ground caribou calving grounds receive the appropriate protections from disturbances caused by mining and other development pressures. This is especially critical given that barren-ground caribou were recently listed under the Northwest Territories Species at Risk Act and assessed as threatened at the federal level in 2017 by COSEWIC.
• Other important areas that have been proposed for land use designations in the NLUP include walrus haul-outs, polar bear denning areas and whale calving grounds.

 
About World Wildlife Fund Canada
WWF-Canada creates solutions to the environmental challenges that matter most for Canadians. We work in places that are unique and ecologically important, so that nature, wildlife and people thrive together. Because we are all wildlife. For more information, visit wwf.ca.
 
For further information
Stephanie Normandin, communications specialist, [email protected], +1 514-891-2275