Nunavut government wants to open a protected area in the High Arctic to tourism

The Government of Nunavut is pushing the federal government to allow tourism, recreational and outfitting activities in the Tuvaijuittuq Marine Protected Area in the High Arctic.

With certain exceptions, no human activity has been authorized there for the last five years.

In a letter, Nunavut's Department of Environment asked Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to adopt a ministerial order saying "certain activities can occur within a Marine Protected Area," or that recognizes "specific tourism, recreation, and outfitting activities as 'on-going' under section 35.1 (1) (c) of the Oceans Act."

"Our support is not merely conditional but contingent upon immediate and substantive action by DFO," Nunavut's deputy environment minister Yvonne Niego wrote in the letter addressed to DFO deputy minister Annette Gibbons on March 25. 

Niego also wrote that "new considerations" emerged since the signing of Nunavut's devolution agreement in January.

Niego did not share specific details about the type of tourist, recreational or outfitting activities envisioned for the area.

The 319,000-square-kilometre Tuvaijuittuq Marine Protected Area is off the northwest of Ellesmere Island in Nunavut's High Arctic. 

In Inuktitut, Tuvaijuittuq means "place where the ice never melts."

According to DFO, the marine protected area is considered one of the last places in the world with year-round sea ice. It also has the oldest and thickest sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. 

When it was created in July 2019, the marine protected area became the first in the country to receive interim protection. 

This temporary protection was meant to give the government of Canada, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, and the government of Nunavut more time to explore the feasibility of long-term protection measures in the area. 

The parameters of this temporary protection are laid out in a ministerial order in the federal Oceans Act. It does have certain exceptions, including "the exercise of Inuit rights respecting wildlife harvesting as provided for under the Nunavut Agreement, marine scientific research consistent with the conservation objectives of the [marine protected area], safety, security and emergency activities and certain activities carried out by a foreign national, entity, ship or state."

That protection is set to expire in July. DFO wants to renew it for a period of five years, but the Nunavut government thinks that's too restrictive. 

"The proposed interim measures, as they stand, appear to unjustifiably restrict activities, which is a significant concern for us," Niego wrote in the letter.