Nunavut frustrated with delays in harbour funding

A lack of federal cash flowing into Nunavut hamlets for small-craft harbours has frustrated community leaders, who say it's unfair they're being left out while the East Coast is flush with funding.

On Friday, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans announced $2.5 million to repair and improve four small-craft fishing harbours in the Avalon area of Newfoundland and Labrador. Other harbours in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have received millions in funding from the department in the past month.

But Nunavummiut are still waiting to hear back on a $40-million proposed plan, drafted two years ago by the department and the Nunavut government, to build small-craft harbours in seven communities.

"It's not fair. I mean, we're also Canadian people," Pond Inlet Mayor David Qamaniq said Thursday.

"We are the only reason why [the] Canadian government has sovereignty over the North. If it weren't for us, I don't think this part of the world would be called Canada."

A department spokesperson told CBC News the DFO isstill working with the Nunavut government to find money for the plan. As for the recent influx of cash on the East Coast, the department said that funding is going toward repairs, not to build new harbours.

On Wednesday, the government announced $1.5 million for work on two fishing harbours on the Burin Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador. In July, an additional $6.7 million went toward work on other harbours in that province.

That same month, small-craft harbours in Nova Scotia received $2.3 million in funding, while New Brunswick received $9.3 million.

Qamaniq said people in Pond Inlet, one of the seven communities slated to have a harbour built under the proposed plan, have to scramble to rescue their boats when the winds pick up.

In Clyde River, hamletCoun. Nick Illauq said residents in his community have seen many boats smashed on the rocks over the years, including a fishing boat worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"It's been in the community plan for more than 20 years," Illauq said.

"Even though we put it in the five-year capital plan, there's never enough money, or they keep telling us there's no money to build it."

Illauq said he has been waiting two decades for a harbour or breakwater in the hamlet. He added that given Nunavut's rich natural resources, having harbours built would benefit everyone in the territory.

"Our average income is $16,000 a year. So if a port came along, or a breakwater, then there could be infrastructure for more fishing, and maybe more people would get some boats and go out fishing and create a viable business for themselves and their families," he said.

"This would surely benefit every Nunavut community that would get one."