Country food harvesting must become a form of paid employment, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association said in a report released at its recent board meeting in Iqaluit.

“Our goal is for every Inuk in the Qikiqtani Region to have stable and long-term access to locally harvested country food,” QIA says.

QIA’s proposal doesn’t give any dollar figures describing how much they believe hunters should be paid.

But they say that paying hunters to hunt, as well as paying for hunting-related expenses like fuel and equipment, would give Inuit more time to focus on harvesting and would recognize harvesting skills as professional skills.

QIA does not provide any estimates on the additional quantities of country food that would be produced were harvesters paid to hunt.

And the report doesn’t say how the proposal would mesh with the Nunavut-wide harvesters support program that Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. administers.

But QIA says Nunavut needs a shift in thinking, from “food security” to “food sovereignty.”

“This means empowering Inuit to feed our own communities,” QIA said.

As for a definition of “food sovereignty,” QIA says it comprises four rights:

• The right to healthy and nutritious food

• The right to culturally appropriate food

• The right to “food harvested through ecologically sound and sustainable methods”

• The right to access wildlife in ways that empower communities

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