November 26, 1998

East-west brawl breaks out over polar bear plates

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — An emotional struggle over one of the most recognizable symbols of the Arctic seems poised to shatter what was until now a mostly peaceful parting of the ways in the Northwest Territories.

Nunavut MLAs are still brooding over a plan by their western colleagues to keep using the NWT's famous polar-bear shaped licence plates after division on April 1.

"The polar-bear license plate is something that we own in Nunavut," said Baffin Central MLA Tommy Enuaraq, responding to the recommendation of a special legislative committee.

"I told these guys, 'We'll keep the polar bear and you can have the muskrat.'"

But attachment to the quirky license plate is equally strong in the west, and the tourism industry in particular has been adamant in its refusal to give it up.

The Special Committee on Western Identity, chaired by Yellowknife South MLA Seamus Henry, made the surprise announcement last week, catching the Nunavut caucus off guard.

Nunavut MLAs complained that they were not consulted by the committee before the decision on the future symbols of the new Northwest Territories was made public.

"I don't know what the big kerfuffle is in Nunavut," Henry said. "Surely Nunavut wouldn't want us to interfere with some of the things that they choose to keep."

The legality of the western claim against the bear-shaped plate is still being researched, but Henry likened it to "squatters' rights."

"Once you have been using a symbol, my understanding is you have rights to it," Henry said.

In addition to the trademark bear-shaped plates, the western MLAs propose to keep the mountain aven as the official flower of the western territory, and the gyrfalcon as the territorial bird.

The special committee on western identity is still pondering the status of the Northwest Territories's ubiquitous government logo – a three-legged polar bear.

Henry said businesses in the private sector are particularly concerned about having to bear the costs of altering their own logos and marketing materials in the event that the new Northwest Territories were to drop the polar bear ads an official symbol.

And he doesn't mind the current squabble over identity between east and west.

"Actually I think this is an excellent thing that's happening, this bit of publicity that's being created."

Most of the NWT's estimated population of 15,000 polar bears live in the eastern Arctic.

According to Peter Krizan, a biologist with the Department of Sustainable Development, all but one of the 13 known polar bear populations in the Northwest Territories are either within, or shared with Nunavut.

But the range of one group known as the south Beaufort population does extend up into Alaska and down the northern tip of Yukon, as far as Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik in the western NWT.

A more important consideration for western MLAs is that the polar bear is already associated with the Northwest Territories name, which is to remain in place after April 1 until such time as residents vote on a new constitution.

"Maybe this division of the territory could be held up as an example to the world of how it could be done. The biggest fight that we've seemed to generate in the past three years is who's keeping the license plate," Henry said.

Nunavut's own set of new official heraldic symbols won't be made public until April 1.

In the meantime, there's nothing preventing from Nunavut from continuing to use bear-shaped license plates. In fact, both territories are expected to share the polar-bear shaped plate, at least until the year 2000.

Members of the public will be asked in the coming weeks to help choose a design for the western territory's new flag, mace and coat of arms.