The Nunatsiavut Government is recommending that Beneficiaries in the Labrador Inuit Settlement Area refrain from harvesting migratory birds after May 30, 2020.

Based on previous discussions with experienced hunters in our communities, the Nunatsiavut Government is recommending that the Spring Harvest be kept to a minimum.

Hunters should not exercise good conservation practices and not exceed four (4) Canada geese and eight (8) freshwater ducks and divers per household.

Please keep in mind that this is the mating season of migratory birds and birds should be harvested accordingly.

Harvesting of Harlequin Duck (Lords and Ladies) is prohibited.

If you require additional information, please contact your local Nunatsiavut Government Conservation Officer. Conservation Officers will be monitoring the harvest of migratory birds.

Makkovik resident, 61, had been reported missing on Tuesday evening.

Search and rescue efforts were successful Wednesday in finding a missing hunter in the Okak Bay area of northern Labrador.

The 61-year-old Makkovik man had been with a group of hunters around the abandoned Inuit community of Okak.

The Nain RCMP detachment was told Tuesday evening that the man had not returned to the group. The call prompted a quick response from the ground search and rescue team in Nain, which began searching for the hunter overnight.

The hunter’s snowmobile dropped over an overhang where he sustained some injuries.

Sgt. Ed Nugent, the detachment commander in Nain, said the man’s life is not at risk.

Nugent said the man will be taken to hospital for treatment.
Nugent described the response from all parties as quick, and said that he is grateful for their efforts.

“The Nain ground search and rescue team was fully mobilized. Two members of the local team actually were the spotters on the helicopter that located this gentlemen today,” he said.

The group was believed to have been hunting partridges.

Story courtesy of CBC Newfoundland and Labrador.

ITK is looking for pictures of what social isolation looks like in Inuit Nunangat.

It could include quiet streets, drone footage of communities with no traffic, people walking 2 meters apart on the land, or a lineup at the store.

It’s however you want to capture social distancing in THREE unique photos.

If you’re interested, please feel free to submit three of your best photos to David Murphy.

ITK is offering $200 per photo selected for publication, and 50 cents per word for a 25-word maximum caption.

ITK is hoping to gather these photos before the end of next week as the magazine is in production now, so the deadline is today Friday, April 24.

Please note that they want you to submit photos without disobeying your local public health agency’s measures for physical distancing during COVID-19.

If you have any pictures, please send them along to the Editor at ITK, David Murphy at murphy@itk.ca.

Thursday marked the sixth consecutive day without any new cases of COVID-19 reported in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The province’s total number of cases remains at 256, with 205 people having recovered. The number of active cases in the province has fallen to 48.

As of Thursday 6,902 people have been tested, 240 since Wednesday’s briefing.

Fitzgerald issued two new public health orders: effective Monday at noon, all travelers arriving in the province will be required to submit a 14-day self-isolation plan upon entering, and effective Friday at noon all travelers must fill out a health declaration form when arriving at any point of entry.

The self-isolation plan form will include questions about where the person will be staying, whether they will be around vulnerable people, and how they will maintain isolation.

“We want people to be able to do the right thing, and we want to be able to support them to do that right thing,” Fitzgerald said. “So ideally we would want to have that information prior to them coming to the province.”

Fitzgerald said now that the province has seen a period of no new cases for almost a week, the mandatory forms are in place to give public health a clearer picture when it comes to incoming travelers as government begins planning to ease some of its restrictions.

As finance and treasury board officials in Newfoundland and Labrador nervously watch the price of oil, one industry watcher in the United States says things will improve.

West Texas Intermediate futures trading was actually in negative territory this week, meaning that traders were paying people to take oil away.

Jay Young has been working in, and writing about, the oil industry since the early 1980s.

Young predicts that Brent Crude prices will almost double by the end of the summer or early fall.

He says fracking has flooded the US market with new oil, followed by OPEC and OPEC Plus nations putting more oil out there driving prices down yet again.

That’s all been exacerbated by the current collapse in demand.

He says with Brent in the $20 a barrel range, many wells are being shut in and just won’t be producing.

The two hubs in Labrador are putting up checkpoints in an effort to restrict the movement of people to essential travel only.

Labrador West is concerned about travel to and from Fermont, Quebec.

That province has over half of the total cases of COVID-19 in the country.

Happy Valley-Goose Bay will station municipal personnel on the Trans-Labrador Highway to intercept not only people traveling into the town but also those leaving town.

Mayor Wally Andersen says they have no issue with people who are essential or traveling for essential purposes.

People in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Sheshatshiu and North West River will be permitted to go to their cabins.

Mayor Andersen says they’re simply trying to prevent the flow of unnecessary travel.

The Nunatsiavut Government announced that assistance will be provided to ensure Beneficiaries of the Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement residing in the Constituency of Upper Lake Melville have sufficient nutritious food to support health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gerald Asivak is the Ordinary Member for ULM and Minister of Health and Social Development.

Beneficiaries in the Upper Lake Melville area wishing to apply for the Emergency Food Supplement Program are asked to call the following numbers in their respective communities during regular business hours (8:30 a.m. to 12 noon and from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday):

Happy Valley-Goose Bay/Mud Lake (709) 896-3396
North West River (709) 497-8807 or 497-8808

Click here to hear Asivak give you more details.

Dr. Fitzgerald announced that there were 0 New positive cases in NL.

Making it the 5th consecutive day in a row of 0 cases in the province.

256 total cases (1 less than 18th-1 clerical error)

239 Eastern Health, 8 Central Health, 4 Western Health, 6 Labrador Grenfell Health.

52 percent females and 48 percent males

6 people in hospital and 2 in icu
3 death in eastern health previously. Not today.

199 people have recovered and 6662 were tested.

Families that are entitled to receive the Canada Child Benefit for April 2020 and still have an eligible child in their care in May 2020 will get up to $300 extra per child as part of their regular May 2020 payment.

This is a one-time benefit year (July 2019 to June 2020).

You will get the payment increase if you have an eligible child in your care in May, and you and your spouse/common-law partner (if applicable) have filed your 2018 tax return(s).

If you didn’t file your 2018 taxes, you won’t receive this payment. If you’re late in filing your 2018 taxes, you should file as soon as possible. You may be eligible for retroactive benefits and credits. The only way to get these benefits is by filing your return.

You don’t have to file your 2019 taxes to receive the Canada Child Benefit payment increase, but you should file them so you continue to get your benefits and credits for the 2020-2021 benefit year.

The amount you receive will be calculated based on information from the 2018 tax return(s) of you and your spouse/common-law partner (if applicable). If you are a newcomer to Canada from January 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020, you and your spouse’s/common-law partner’s (if applicable) reported world income will be used in the calculation.

The amount will be different for each family depending on their net income, up to a maximum of $300 per child.

Parents who have shared custody will each get half of the payment increase amount.

You will receive the payment increase automatically the same way you receive your regular Canada Child Benefit payment (direct deposit or cheque).

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says they’re still a few days away before they can say we’re in the clear from the Easter weekend.

The province has reported no new cases of COVID-19 over the last three days. There have been cases 13 in total over the last week.

Dr. Fitzgerald says the average incubation period of the virus is about five or six days, so they expected to see some symptoms coming up by now.

However, she says it can be up to 14 days, so the numbers must remain low over the next few days before they can determine how closely the people of the province followed public health measures.

Story courtesy of VOCM.