A Northern caribou management board has failed to secure its desired funding boost for the current fiscal year despite an enthusiastic response from the federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous governments.
The Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board oversees the health and conservation of both the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou herds, whose combined range spans the NWT, Nunavut, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
At the last of its twice-annual annual meetings in December 2021, the board requested a doubling of its funding over 10 years, to $250,000, from its government partners, including the Government of Canada and the GNWT. The board also requested $10,000 in additional funding from each of the five participating Indigenous governments, which would bring its total budget in 10 years to $300,000.
The boardSA国际影视传媒檚 executive director, Tina Giroux-Robillard, said itSA国际影视传媒檚 been about a decade since the organizationSA国际影视传媒檚 funding has increased.
She said the current budget SA国际影视传媒渉as really not met the demands of growth SA国际影视传媒� even inflation hasnSA国际影视传媒檛 kept up. So in order to modernize the management agreement, and to bring it to modern times, we assessed a really modest budget of what we would need to really be able to capitalize on where weSA国际影视传媒檙e at.
SA国际影视传媒淚 think everybody understands, and has expressed to us, how much the board does and how itSA国际影视传媒檚 needed,SA国际影视传媒� said Giroux-Robillard. SA国际影视传媒淎nd the work that we do is valuable. For this year, we werenSA国际影视传媒檛 able to reach those deadlines.SA国际影视传媒�
The board received positive responses from the Indigenous governments about making their own contributions, she noted.
As Giroux-Robillard explained, the failure to secure additional funding was not due to a lack of interest, but because the request came too late in each partySA国际影视传媒檚 budget planning process to be added to their 2022-SA国际影视传媒�23 fiscal plans.
SA国际影视传媒淪o we are continuing to get funding this year. However, weSA国际影视传媒檙e not getting the increase in funding that we had hoped for, but we are pretty hopeful that we will be getting that moving forward, next fiscal year and on,SA国际影视传媒� she said.
According to the management boardSA国际影视传媒檚 website, the population of the Beverly herd decreased from approximately 136,600 in 2011 to 103,400 in 2018. The Qamanirjuaq herd decreased from about 344,000 animals in 2008 to about 288,000 in 2017.
With additional funding, Giroux-Robillard said the board would be able to improve its communication with its Indigenous partners.
SA国际影视传媒淲e need to increase our communication and our support for our board members that are in the Indigenous communities that really depend on the caribou,SA国际影视传媒� she said.
She also said the board is in a position to take a broader view on some of the challenges faced by the herds, such as climate change, that each of the partner governments alone may not be able to take.
A spokesperson for the territorial government said, SA国际影视传媒淭he GNWT is committed to working towards a funding agreement with all partners on the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board,SA国际影视传媒� but did not elaborate further.
The Northwest Territory M茅tis Nation, which participates on the board, did not return a request for comment.
The boardSA国际影视传媒檚 next meeting is scheduled to take place in Winnipeg on May 3.
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