From: Tom Harman [tharman@autotube.com]
Sent: December 9, 2008 10:46 AM
To: lpayette@nirb.ca
Subject: Please help protect the Beverly caribou herd

I am sending this email to protest any further development in the calving grounds of the Beverly caribou herd.

I find it shameful that  the Nunavut Impact Review Board  NNIRB) is considering an application from Uravan Minerals, for development of their uranium property right on the caribou calving ground, just south of Garry Lake (Back River).  

This is of great concern to me as population estimates indicate the Beverly caribou population has dropped by 98% in the past 14 years, since the last proper aerial survey. This move forward will definitely impact any future growth of this herd.

It is essential that the NIRB send a clear signal to industry that mineral development on the calving and post-calving grounds is out of the question.  To do otherwise is to accept the decline of the caribou population as unimportant to the people who depend on these animals, both physically and culturally – these caribou provide millions of dollars worth of meat annually to the residents of user-communities in Nunavut, NWT, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  Not protecting caribou habitat also contradicts the broad desires of Canadians to see this iconic species and its habitat protected for future generations.  The NIRB surely has a responsibility to do what it can to protect the caribou and caribou habitat.

While no one can state categorically that the decline in caribou numbers is a direct result of industrial activity, it can certainly be justly argued that their recovery will be rendered next to impossible if the most critical part of their habitat (the calving grounds) is taken over by industrial activity.

I urge you to help save the caribou

Thanks

Tom Harman 
Sales Engineer 
Autotube Limited 
300 High St., E., 
Strathroy, Ontario 
N7G 4C5 
Ph: 519-245-3736 ext. 229 
Fax: 519-245-5126