Starting Tuesday, hunters who kill a wolf in a specific area of the North Slave will receive $900 plus payments for pelts.
A harvest program has been active across the territory since 2010, one of the actions the GNWT and Indigenous partners are taking to support the traditional economy and respond to dwindling caribou populations. However, after the government heard from North Slave communities that previous payments were not enough to encourage wolf harvesting, they upped the amount.
Effective immediately, the payment is now $900 per wolf carcass, as well as $400 if pelts meet traditional or taxidermy standards and an added $350 if pelts meet the ‘prime fur bonus’ under the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program (GMVFP).
These new amounts apply only in a specific area, where the GNWT says there are both tundra wolves and migrating barren-ground caribou. The community of Wekweeti and the Ekati and Diavik mines fall within this area.
In other parts of the territory, incentives will continue to be $200 for a skinned wolf, $400 for pelts prepared to traditional standards and additional $350 if pelts meet the Mackenzie Valley Fur Program’s ‘prime fur bonus’.
Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Robert C. McLeod says the increased incentive serves several purposes.
“Increasing existing incentives for wolf harvesting in the Bathurst and Bluenose-East caribou range will help to support the recovery of the declining herds while also enhancing the local traditional economy, facilitating scientific research, and creating educational opportunities for NWT students,” McLeod states.
Carcasses collected as part of the program will be ‘analyzed’ to improve scientific knowledge of wolves, the GNWT states.
