Previous Meetings
Mar 29-31 HBOWG Meeting
· Agenda
· Draft Minutes
Sept 9-11, 2003 HBOWG Meeting
· Agenda
· Draft Minutes
· List of Participants
· Pictures: Drum Dancer Park Fashion Show
June 25-26, 2003 Traditional Knowledge Focus Group
· Agenda
· Draft Minutes
· List of Participants
March 4-6, 2003 HBOWG Meeting
· Agenda
· Minutes
· List of Participants
· Pictures: Reception Meeting Dance Arviat
September 24-26, 2002 HBOWG Meeting
· Launching Canada's Oceans Strategy"
· Agenda
· Minutes
· List of Participants
March 6-8, 2002 HBOWG Meeting
· Agenda
· Minutes
· List of Participants
· Community Poster
December 12-13, 2001 HBOWG Meeting
· Agenda
· Minutes
· List of Participants
October 3-4, 2001 HBOWG Meeting
· Agenda
· Minutes
· List of Participants
· Agenda, Participants and Issues - Inuktitut

Special Events

Oceans Day 2003 in Churchill, Manitoba
Oceans Day in Churchill, Manitoba was a great success. Approximately 90 youth from Nunavut, Northern Manitoba and Winnipeg gathered to celebrate and learn about ocean resources. In partnership with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Hudson Bay Ocean Working Group, the Churchill Northern Studies put together a weekend of community and youth events focusing on the connection between fresh and marine waters.
· Pictures: Group, Fort, Kayaking, Oceans Fair

Kivalliq Poster Contest Winners
1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place

Introduction:

Canada's Oceans Act (1997) directs that the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans shall lead and facilitate the development and implementation of plans for the integrated management of all activities or measures in or affecting estuaries, coastal waters and marine waters that form part of Canada or in which Canada has sovereign rights under international law.

In the fall of 2000, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) initiated an integrated management planning process for Hudson Bay by hosting two (Western) Hudson Bay workshops. The first was titled "Charting a Co-ordinated Approach to Management of the Western Hudson Bay Region", and the second was titled "Examining the Health of the Hudson Bay Ecosystem".

As a follow up to the workshops, Fisheries and Oceans staff led a community tour of the Western Hudson Bay Region and Iqaluit from March 7th -19th, 2001. The communities visited included Churchill, Rankin Inlet; Whale Cove; Arviat; Coral Harbour; Repulse Bay; and Chesterfield Inlet. The purpose of the tour was to share information about DFO's new management responsibilities for marine waters, and to learn what management issues were important to coastal communities.

Key issues identified through the workshops and community tour include:

• Environmental - unique nature of the Hudson Bay ecosystem, resource management initiatives, environmental stresses, co-management initiatives, cumulative effects monitoring and management, climate change.
• Information / Knowledge Acquisition, Sharing and Management - scientific, traditional ecological and economic knowledge of the area, identification of the challenges related to information sharing and management.
• Economic - development trends and intentions, opportunities for current and future marine transportation.
• Social-cultural - aboriginal issues including Manitoba First Nations, Metis and Inuit including historical/legal rights and interests, resource co-management, subsistence and commercial harvesting.
• Jurisdictional - constitutional jurisdictions of the federal, territorial and Manitoba governments, including joint arrangements under the Nunavut Final Agreement.

In sum, northerners agreed that collaborative decision-making processes should be part of the approach taken to develop a long-term management planning process for Hudson Bay. Community leaders expressed concern that there is no cohesive structure or process in place to facilitate management of the extremely complex Hudson Bay environment. As well, communities requested that they be given a meaningful role in the development of a management approach, and the opportunity to participate actively in the development of a mandate for further study of the Hudson Bay marine ecosystem.

In response to these interests and concerns, our inaugural Hudson Bay Ocean Working Group (HBOWG) meeting was held October 3-4, 2001 in Rankin Inlet, NU to lay the groundwork for an integrated management plan for Hudson Bay. Subsequent working group meetings have been held to develop a Terms of Reference and further the development of this management plan. The HBOWG represents a wide cross-section of groups and agencies with interests in the long-term health of Hudson Bay (Working Group Contact List). It is our practice to have a theme for each of our meetings, and to involve the community during evening discussions. Previous themes have included traditional knowledge, climate change, Canada's Oceans Strategy and planning for protected areas in Hudson Bay.

For more information, please contact:
Steve Newton
Integrated Management Planner
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N6
Phone: (204) 984-5561
Fax: (204) 984-2403
Email: newtons@dfo-mpo.gc.ca