Let Labrador reserve visitors carry guns, outfitter says
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 | 1:06 PM NT
CBC News
An outfitter says Parks Canada should rethink its prohibition on letting patrons in a northern Labrador reserve carry firearms, because of the threat posed by polar bears.
Henry Webb, an outfitter based in Nain, said he is reluctant to drop off hikers and kayakers in nearby Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve, as polar bears are not uncommon within the reserve's boundaries.
'It's only safe to have a rifle with you up in that country .… You don't have to shoot to kill, just scare them away.'—Henry Webb
"A stick or a rock is no good with a big, 1,500-pound animal coming around you," said Webb, who has spent the last three decades sailing his longliner north of Nain, shipping supplies and tourists drawn to the remote and rugged mountain scenery in the area.
Under the Nunatsiavut land claims agreement, which covers much of northern Labrador, Inuit may carry guns in the park. However, non-Inuit visitors cannot.
Webb said the rule makes no sense.
"I don't think it's a safe thing to do at all," he said. That's why I don't like to do it anymore, if they don't have a firearm."
He does not value other options, such as pepper spray, very highly.
"It's only safe to have a rifle with you up in that country .… You don't have to shoot to kill, just scare them away," he said.
Parks Canada forbids firearms in all national parks.
Darlene Pearson, policy director of the National Parks Directorate in Ottawa, said the policy is now under review.
"Current policy was put in place well before we had northern parks," she said.
The Nunatsiavut government, though, does not want to see a change. William Barbour, the minister of lands and resources, said Nunatsiavut would prefer to see visitors hiring Inuit guides in the reserve area.
But Jerry Kobalenko, an Arctic traveller and writer who has kayaked in the Torngats, said many eco-tourists will stay away if they can only travel with a guide.
"They either have to allow firearms for visitors, or outlaw visitors, or so restrict visitor experiences that there's only tours in the park with Inuit babysitters," Kobalenko said.
A joint park management board, which was formed after the Nunatsiavut land claim, is set to discuss the firearms policy at a meeting in August.
The area is not for the casual tourist. In August 2004, two experienced hikers perished after a blizzard set while they were attempting to climb Mount Kaupvik, the highest peak in Atlantic Canada.
