Fisheries should have consulted Nunavut on quotas: Federal Court

A Federal Court justice has ruled that the federal government should not have transferred turbot fishing quotas in Arctic waters to companies outside the North in 2008 without first consulting Nunavut fishermen.

In January 2008, then-federal fisheries minister Loyola Hearn approved the transfer of 1,900 tonnes of turbot quota in the waters off Baffin Island.

The quota had been held by a company in Atlantic Canada that wasn't using it, so Hearn approved the sale of that quota to another Atlantic-based company.

The Nunavut Wildlife Management Board challenged that decision, saying both the board itself and Nunavut fisheries officials should have been consulted.

The board pointed out that Nunavut fishermen are only allocated about two-thirds of the available fish off the territory's coastline, while Atlantic fishermen control nearly all the quota in their waters.

The lack of consultation violates both federal policy and the territory's land claim, according to the territorial agency.

In a written decision dated Jan. 7, 2009, Federal Court Justice Michael Kelen allowed the 2008 quota transfer to stand, saying Hearn was within his rights to allow the transfer because it did not affect the amount of quota available in Nunavut.

However, Kelen added that the case shows the need for new policies that clarify the government's obligation to give Nunavut "special consideration" when dealing with fish in Nunavut's adjacent waters.

Kelen wrote that the minister of fisheries and oceans "has a statutory obligation" under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement to consider concerns raised by the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board before approving future transfers of fish quotas.

The transfer decision led about 50 demonstrators in Iqaluit to burn a boat in protest in May 2008. Politicians in Nunavut's legislative assembly slammed the federal fish quota allocations, accusing the Department of Fisheries and Oceans of undermining Nunavut's emerging fishery.