AMENDED HEARING NOTICE
This Amended Notice of Public Hearing is herein provided on December 11, 2024, to give notice that the Nunavik Marine Region Wildlife Board (NMRWB) and Eeyou Marine Region Wildlife Board (EMRWB) are holding hearings on the issue of whether it is necessary to establish, modify or remove Non-Quota Limitations (NQLs) for polar bears in the Nunavik Marine Region (NMR) and the Eeyou Marine Region (EMR) including the Cree/Nunavik Inuit Offshore Overlapping Areas of Interest.
Further, the NMRWB and EMRWB provide Notice herein that, following due consideration of the November 7, 2024 request from Makivvik to extend the scope of the Phase 2 portion of these hearings, the Boards have decided to expand the scope of Phase 2 to include a reconsideration of the current Total Allowable Take (TAT) and NQLs in place for the Southern Hudson Bay Polar Bear management unit, as established by the Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change and the Minister of Environment for the Government of Nunavut in October 2016. This will include portions of the NMR as well as the Inuit Zone and Joint Zone of the NMR/EMR Cree/Inuit Overlap Area. [See Figure 1 below]
Please see the Hearing Notice and Hearing Rules below for more details, including the scope of the hearing, the list of Parties with Status, the application for Party Status, the Information Request details, the timeline and deadlines, as well as the rules pertaining to the hearing.
The hearings will be split into two phases to facilitate effective and meaningful participation.
Phase 1 In-person Hearing: NMRWB
Will be held by the NMRWB covering the areas of the NMR that do not include any areas of overlap with the Eeyou Marine Region, and that correspond with the areas of the NMR that correspond with the areas covered by the Foxe Basin and Davis Strait polar bear subpopulation areas.
Date: November 5 – 8, 2024
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Phase 2 In-person Hearing: NMRWB/EMRWB Joint
Will be jointly held by the NMRWB and EMRWB and will cover the areas of the NMR, and the Cree/Inuit Overlap Areas known as the Joint Zone and Inuit Zone – specifically those areas that correspond to where there is a TAT and NQLs established by Government currently in place See Figure 1.
Date: February 4 – 7, 2025
Location: Kuujjuaraapik/Whapmagoostui, Quebec
NOTE: EMRWB intends to hold a hearing at a later date to consider the necessity for the establishment of TAT and NQL for the areas of the EMR where the EMRWB have exclusive jurisdiction (i.e. the Cree Zone and the rest of the EMR area south of the Cree Zone).
Figure 1: Area covered in Phase 2 of the Public Hearing
HEARING SCOPE:
The objective of the hearings will be to gather information relevant to the EMRWB and NMRWB decision-making on the issue of polar bear NQLs. This will include information about harvest levels, polar bear population abundance and health trends, as well as local practices for effective polar bear harvest management in the NMR and the EMR.
For The Boards to make decisions that include the best available information from Nunavik Inuit and Cree Knowledge of wildlife and wildlife management, as well as knowledge gained through scientific research, the Boards are specifically requesting that the following information be provided in response to the Request For Information and at the hearings:
- Harvest levels: Knowledge and information about polar bear harvest levels.
- Polar bear knowledge: Cree, Inuit, or Scientific knowledge on the abundance, health, and environment of polar bears within the NMR and the EMR.
- Management approaches and techniques: Knowledge and information about Nunavik Inuit and Eeyou Cree polar bear management approaches. This could include information about what types of measures are being used by harvesters in your communities now and historically to support the long-term presence of polar bear in the NMR and EMR.
With respect to the scope of Phase 2, the scope has been expanded to include the consideration of the Total Allowable Take (TAT), particularly as it applies to portions of the NMR, and the NMR/EMR overlap area, specifically the Inuit Zone and the Joint Zone portions of the Cree/Inuit Overlap Area (Figure 1), where a TAT and NQL established by the Governments are currently in effect.