Makivvik’s Department of Environment, Wildlife, and Research (DEWR) has its first Inuk director. Barrie Ford, a Nunavik Beneficiary, was born and raised in Kuujjuaq, and studied Wildlife Biology at McGill University before returning home to start his career at Makivvik.
Barrie has worked for many years at the Nunavik Research Centre (NRC), including some time as deputy director. DEWR has two branches, the research and the environment and wildlife policy side, and Ford says just before COVID he became the Resource Management Coordinator on the policy side, before Gregor Gilbert retired this fall and Ford was promoted to the DEWR Director position.
“It was a big jump,” he says of his new role, but he is pleased to be the first Inuk in the job. “I think it’s been a long time coming. The previous directors have done an excellent job and supported capacity building and I think they all had a dream that when they retired that they would be replaced by someone that was a beneficiary who was competent to do the job. And I share that same dream, too, that when I’m replaced that it will be someone from the region.”
Adamie Delisle Alaku, Vice-President DEWR, says Ford has taken on many roles representing Nunavik as a Makivvik appointee, including the Raglan Committee and Nunavik Nickel Committee, the community of interest panel for the Mining Association of Canada, the Canadian Polar Commission, and was a regional liaison for the International Polar Year. More recently he sits on the National Aboriginal Council of Species at Risk, Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge Sub Committee of COSEWIC and is the chairman for the Nunavik Marine Region Impact Review Board.
“We are proud to have him take on this new role and we know he will do well in helping lead the department,” Adamie says. “His experience and intimate Nunavik knowledge will serve us well.”
Barrie is up the challenge and says he will work to have Inuit voices at the forefront in decision making. “I hope to continue to shape the DEWR department in a way that it supports research and science that can be used for decision making in wildlife policy and to have science by Inuit for Inuit,” he says. “Meaning that we continue to use traditional knowledge when designing our studies and also Inuit hunters when collecting data, having community members involved in the science from conception to final results.”
