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Definitions of Arctic

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A region between the North Pole and the northern timberlines of North America and Eurasia. 1

Historical chronology for Canadian arctic policies

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  • Morrison, W.R. "Arctic Sovereignty". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Foundation. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
  • Kenney, Gerard (2005). Ships of Wood and Men of Iron: A Norwegian-Canadian Saga of Exploration in the High Arctic (Google eBook) (2nd ed.). Toronto, ON: Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc. p. 139. ISBN 1-897045-06-9.

1500-1800

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1576

Martin Frobisher explores the arctic. (British)

1585, 87

John Davis explores the arctic. (British)

1670

Charter granted to the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) by Charles II. This gave the company title to Rupert's Land, the watershed of Hudson Bay, or about half of present-day Canada, (Morrison).

1800-1900

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1821

The rest of the present-day Northwest Territories and Nunavut south of the arctic coast was added to HBC's charter, (Morrison).

1870

June, The HBC transferred title to its lands to Canada. The new dominion acquired sovereignty over all of the present-day Northwest Territories and Nunavut except for the arctic islands. This sovereignty has never been questioned, (Morrison).

1880

July, The British government transferred to Canada the rest of its possessions in the Arctic, including "all Islands adjacent to any such Territories" whether discovered by British or foreigners, or not yet discovered.

1881-84

Lieutenant A. Greely led a scientific expedition in 1881-84. Ellesmere Island. (USA, no formal claim for territory) (Morrison)

1900-1960

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1898-1902

Otto Sverdrup discovered Axel Heiberg, Ellef Ringnes and Amund Ringnes islands. He was the first person (including the Inuit) to set foot on them. All his discoveries, about 275 000 km2, he claimed for Norway, (Morrison).

1909

Robert Peary reached the North Pole from his base on northern Ellesmere, (Morrison)

Other large arctic islands were also discovered by non-British explorers, (Morrison).

1930

August 8, Norway formally recognized the sovereignty of Britain (Canada) over the Sverdrup Islands and dismisses any recognition of the "sector principle," (Kenney, p. 125).

1953-1955

High Arctic relocation took place during the Cold War. Eighty-seven Inuit were moved by the Government of Canada to the High Arctic.

  • The High Arctic Relocation: A Report on the 1953–55 Relocation by René Dussault and George Erasmus, produced by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, published by Canadian Government Publishing, 1994 (190 pages)[1]
  • Porteous, John Douglas (2001). Domicide: The Global Destruction of Home. McGill-Queen's Press. pp. 102–03. ISBN 978-0-7735-2258-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)


1960-1990

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1969

The oil tanker SS Manhattan successfully navigated the Northwest Passage from east to west via Baffin Sea and Viscount Melville Sound. One single token barrel of crude oil was loaded at Prudhoe Bay and then the ship went back escorted by the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker CCGS John A. Macdonald. At one point during the voyage, Inuit hunters stopped the vessel and demanded that the vessel master ask permission to cross through Canadian territory, which he did, and they granted. This route through the Northwest Passage was quite controversial in international relations as sovereignty of these waters is claimed by Canada and this claim has been disputed by the United States. The Government of Canada has defined all waters in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago as being "Canadian Internal Waters."

1970s

The voyage of the Manhattan prompted passionate discussions in Canada about that country's sovereignty in the Arctic, a topic which dominated Arctic policy formulated under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's administration throughout the 1970s.

1985

The voyage of the U.S. icebreaker Polar Sea through the Northwest Passage raised again the question of whether Canada really had sovereignty over the Passage.
http://www.carc.org/pubs/v22no4/loss.htm

1990-Present

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July, 2012, Broader scope needed

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The Arctic policy of Canada has certainly received new life under the current administration's initiatives. But, Canada would have, and has had, an Arctic policy under a variety of administrations. This broader scope can be shown, and should be, as an improvement of this WP article. DonaldRichardSands (talk) 08:05, 8 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Specifics

The role of the following:

  1. Early territorial concerns and claims
  2. History of the petroleum industry in Canada (frontier exploration and development)#True North
  3. Northern development initiatives of the early 1900s
  4. NATO
  5. The Cold War
  6. 1951, Pinetree Radar Defense System
  7. 1955, Distant Early Warning (DEW) line
  8. 1958, NORAD
  9. 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev's speech in Murmansk, "a genuine zone of peace and fruitful cooperation" (Nord, 2006, p. 297)
  10. 1996, The Arctic Council
  11. Environmental concerns
  12. Economic concerns
  13. Drilling for oil
  14. Oil pipeline
  15. United States superpower vision of the north
  16. Northwest Passage
  17. Acid Rain
  18. Inuit Circumpolar Council

Annotated references and background reading on arctic policies

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  • Rougier, Henri (2003). "Far Far North" (PDF). Ambassade du Canada, France. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
This embassy booklet uses the nordicity terminology of Louis-Edmond Hamelin. It presents a simple, yet effective, view of the Canadian arctic.
Earlier government statements
Tourism

"The world's polar regions are attracting more interest than ever before. Once regarded as barren, inhospitable places where only explorers go, the north and south polar regions have been transformed into high profile tourism destinations, increasingly visited by cruise ships as well as becoming accessible with direct flights. Tourism is seen as one of the few economic opportunities in these regions but at the same time the polar regions are being opened up to tourism development they are being affected by a number of new factors that are interconnected to travel and tourism.

  1. Climate change,
  2. landscape and species loss,
  3. increasing interest in energy resources and minerals,
  4. social changes in indigenous societies, and
  5. a new polar geopolitics

all bring into question the sustainability of polar regions and the place of tourism within them. This timely volume provides a contemporary account of tourism and its impacts in polar regions. It explores the development and prospects of polar tourism, as well as

tourism's impacts and associated change at high latitudes from
  1. environmental,
  2. economic,
  3. social and
  4. political perspectives.

It draws on cutting edge research from both the Arctic and Antarctic to provide a comparative review and illustrate the real life issues arising from tourism's role in these regions. Integrating theory and practice the book fully evaluates varying perspectives on polar tourism and proposes actions that could be taken by local and global management to achieve a sustainable future for polar regions and development of tourism. This complete and current account of polar tourism issues is written by an international team of leading researchers in this area and will have global appeal to higher level students, researchers, academics in Tourism, Environmental Studies, Arctic/Polar Studies and conservation enthusiasts alike." (Google intro)

Internationalism
Keskitalo shows that the vast majority of northern studies or done by those who live in the south and come north to do their research. This creates a frontier conception of the arctic region and a sense of it being different. Search term "nordicity" and "Hamelin".
Inuit self governance
Inuit Nunaat is the term used to describe the homeland of the Inuit of Canada. In a contemporary context, Inuit Nunaat can, with some minor qualifications, best be described as the land and marine areas that make up the land claims settlement areas of the Inuit of Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, Nunavut and the Nunakput region. Inuit Nunaat makes up approximately forty percent of Canada’s land. Inuit Nunaat contains about one half of Canada’s coastlines, and forms virtually all of one territory (Nunavut), significant portions of one other territory (Northwest Territories) and two provinces (Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador).
Foreign policy
  • Nord, Douglas C.; James, Patrick, ed; Michaud, Nelson, ed; O'Reilly, Marc, ed (2006), "Chapter 12, Canada as a Northern Nation", Handbook of Canadian Foreign Policy, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, p. 289, ISBN 978-0-7391-0694-5 {{citation}}: |first2= has generic name (help); External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Environment
  • Côté, François; Williams, Tim (October 24, 2008). "The Arctic: Environmental Issues". Current Publications: Agriculture, environment and natural resources. Library of Parliament Research Publications. Retrieved 2012-07-08.

Canadian Arctic policy in global context

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Treaties

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Legislation

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Russia

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Facts derived from this reference
  1. Russia created new military units for the Arctic
  2. Russia decided to conduct a survey of its seabed in the region
  3. Canada's DND analysts concluded that these Russian decisions don't pose a threat to Canada.
  4. 2011, Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced his country’s intention to create two new brigades, totalling nearly 10,000 troops, to protect its interests the Arctic. The forces are to be used to secure Russian borders
  5. and, like Canada, the Russians are also beefing up their coast guard and looking to exploit natural resources in their northern territory, according to DND.
  6. "While many observers have commented in the media on Russia’s perceived provocative actions in the Arctic, there has yet to be any serious cause for alarm,” the analysts from DND’s ADM Policy branch wrote in a July 2011 briefing for Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Associate Defence Minister Julian Fantino.
  7. “Russia has a right to station its troops wherever it wants on Russian territory,” the briefing added.
  8. The analysts say the economic potential of the Arctic is a major driver behind Moscow’s decisions.
  9. They add that the extreme environment and vast expanse of the region make the economic feasibility of extracting natural resources in the high North beyond a country’s immediate Arctic borders as something that would be prohibitively expensive.
  10. The analysis was released under the Access to Information law.
  11. The Defence Department did not comment on the analysis.
  12. The Conservative government has pointed to the military activities of Russia and other nations in the Arctic as a reason for a buildup of the Canadian Forces’ presence in the north.
  13. Government officials have maintained that the F-35 stealth fighter the military wants to purchase is required so the Royal Canadian Air Force can intercept Russian military planes that may fly near Canada’s northern borders
  14. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has also announced the building of a new icebreaker,
  15. patrol vessels and
  16. an Arctic warfare training centre.
  17. Work has yet to begin on the icebreaker and
  18. the Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships are now delayed by three years.
  19. Harper has spoken of the presence of oil, gas and minerals in the Arctic region, labelling the resources as critical to Canada’s economic growth.
  20. The DND analysis points out that most of the known oil reserves in the region are within the 200-mile economic limits of countries such as Russia and Canada.
  21. The DND analysis also noted Russia’s recent agreement with Norway on maritime borders in the Arctic as further evidence of “a willingness by Moscow to act in a cooperative manner on Arctic issues.”
  22. “Russian surveying of the seabed is a continuation of the work it has been conducting to determine the extent of its continental shelf and is in no way threatening to Canadian interest,” the analysts concluded.
  23. “Russia is following the same process prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to define its outer jurisdictional limits as other coastal states, including Canada.”
  24. Canadian Forces photo: Canadian Rangers taking part in Operation Nanook 2011.

The European Union

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UPI: June 26, 2012, Canada builds up arctic region defenses

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Facts derived from this news item
  1. Canada is building up arctic defenses as part of its long-term program of projecting Canadian presence in a region increasingly claimed by competing powers.
  2. Effects, including
  3. melting ice, of
  4. global climate change on the Arctic Ocean and Arctic Circle
  5. have raised possibilities the region may open up to maritime navigation and competing naval operations by Canada and neighbors in Europe.
  6. The buildup will likely increase the deployment of advanced craft, including stealth snowmobiles and the unmanned aerial vehicles, DefenseNews.com reported.
  7. An increasing number of aviation and defense industries are joining the competition to win Canadian military contracts for a range of equipment aimed at increasing Canada's capability in the arctic region.
  8. Canada conducted military exercises in Norway earlier this year to test its capability in severe weather conditions
  9. and will follow up with training exercises on its own territory.
  10. A new arctic training base will push the military exercises forward and is part of a plan that includes acquisitions of
  11. new patrol craft and
  12. a Polar class icebreaker.
  13. The all-terrain vehicles will form a new fleet expected to cost $2.92 billion.
  14. The current estimates for the icebreaker exceed $680 million.
  15. Northrop Grumman is in line to try and sell a fleet of Global Hawk UAVs capable of patrolling the arctic region.
  16. Amid continuing controversy over Canadian plans for the purchase of multiples of Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is treading cautiously over the arctic defense program.
  17. At the same time, however, Harper's government is keen to project Canadian sovereignty over arctic territories designated as part of Canada.
  18. General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada and ST Kinetics, a Singapore firm, also have their eye on the Army project and have joined forces to promote the Bronco New-Generation Marginal Terrain Vehicle, DefenseNews.com said.
  19. Arktos Developments, an amphibious craft manufacturer from Surrey, British Columbia, is aiming to market its amphibious craft to operate in tandem with the patrol boats and the planned icebreaker.
  20. Other plans for Canada's arctic defense include a stealth snowmobile with a hybrid gas-electric engine.
  21. Harper first unveiled his arctic military development program in 2007, when
  22. he said, "Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty over the Arctic; we either use it or lose it."
  23. He said exploration of the arctic energy and mineral resources was critical to Canada's growth.
  24. A 500-member force will be focused on defense of the arctic and assertion of Canadian sovereignty.

Environmental protection

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Polar bear tourism

see Hall (2010)

Churchill, Manitoba
Polar Bear Provincial Park, Ontario
Nunavut's national parks
Auyuittuq, Sirmilik, Quttinirpaaq

Economic policy

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Open Pit Mining
  • Minerals
Coal
Gold
Early Cenozoic Coal beds in Strathcona Fiord Region.
Early Cenozoic Coal beds in Strathcona Fiord Region (photo credit: Jaelyn Eberle, University of Colorado at Boulder).
  • Companies
  • Mining
Sustainable development

In the news

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"Inuit to get millions from Arctic resource royalties". CBC News, Canada north. Canadian Press via Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. November 28, 2011. Retrieved 2012-07-11.

Facts from this report:

  1. Picture of huge truck and steam shovel: Gold miners work in the open pit mine at Agnico-Eagle's Meadowbank Mine facility in Meadowbank Mine, Nunavut on Wednesday, August 24, 2011. The mine is situated 75 km north of the hamlet of Baker Lake. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
  2. Inuit in Nunavut pass a resolution to charge a new royalty on Arctic resources.
  3. They expect to receive hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade.
  4. Nunavut Tunngavik, the group that administers the Nunavut land claim,
  5. It expects to start collecting the 12 per cent royalty on April 1, 2013.
  6. Nunavut Tunngavik estimates it will collect nearly half a billion dollars from the royalty in its first six years.
  7. The money will be placed in a trust fund and spent by Inuit organizations.
  8. Mining groups say the royalty was expected and isn't likely to affect operations in the territory.
  9. Nunavut's mining industry is increasingly active, with $2.4 billion spent on exploration since 1999 and 82 active properties.

Educational policy

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  • David Akin (February 23, 2012). Harper gives boost to Arctic education. Edmonton Sun

http://m.edmontonsun.com/2012/02/23/harper-gives-boost-to-arctic-education

Highlights of David Akin's report:

  1. Prime Minister Stephen Harper increased funding for education programs in Canada’s North.
  2. He announced that Arctic College will receive $11m over 5 years for adult basic education programs.
  3. Part of a $27-million package to be spent over five years expanding adult basic education programs across the region.
  4. During his day-long visit to Nunavut’s capital, Harper met with students and educators....
  5. Harper: “Expanding educational opportunities will help ensure the jobs in the North will become jobs for northerners...” “We are giving northerners the tools they need to seek higher education and secure employment in sectors that contribute to Canada’s economic growth.”
  6. Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak: this new funding meant that more training programs could be provided in the Inuktitut language spoken by most Inuit. And she noted that for her territory, so far as improving job opportunities for Inuit go, “a critical piece of the puzzle is our adult learners.”
  7. Pressing education problems among Canada’s Inuit, First Nations and Metis communities include low literacy and high dropout rates.

Infrastructure policy

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  • Agreements with mining companies include road construction.

Social/Cultural policy

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  • Historical paternalism 1
Archaeology
Tent ring from the Thule culture on the Meliadine River, near Rankin Inlet
See

Health care

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Food security

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Food security focuses on the high cost of healthful food in northern communities.

Elliott said the new subsidy program, called Nutrition North, does not cover food items that are considered not to be healthy or perishable, although those items used to be covered under the government's old Food Mail Program. CBC, February 10, 2011

Oil drilling policy

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For new section of the article

Arctic Council policy

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For new section of the article

Sovereignty

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The sector principle

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Canada and the USSR/Russia have long claimed that their territory extends according to the sector principle to the North Pole. The United States does not accept the sector principle and does not make a sector claim based on its Alaskan Arctic coast.

Continental shelf and extensions

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Claims that undersea geographic features are extensions of a country's continental shelf are also used to support claims; for example the Denmark/Greenland claim on territory to the North Pole.

Law of the Sea

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Foreign ships, both civilian and military are allowed the right of innocent passage through the territorial waters of a littoral state subject to conditions in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Internal waters

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The right of innocent passage is not allowed however, in internal waters, which are enclosed bodies of water or waters landward of a chain of islands. Disagreements about the 1. sector principle or 2. extension of territory to the North Pole and 3. to the definition of internal waters in the Arctic lie behind differences in territorial claims in the Arctic.

This claim is recognized by most countries with some exceptions, including the United States; Denmark, Russia, and Norway have made claims similar to those of Canada in the Arctic and are opposed by the European Union and the U.S.

Territorial issues

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Topographic features of the Arctic Ocean

Beaufort Sea (Canada and the USA)
Lomonosov Ridge (Canada, Russia, Denmark)
Hans Island (Canada and Denmark)

1975, the James Bay Agreement

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Quebec (Attorney General) v. Moses, 2010 SCC 17, [2010] 1 S.C.R. 557

Background

A. James Bay Agreement

[60] In 1971, the Quebec government announced plans to build an extensive hydro-electric generation complex on the La Grande River in the James Bay area. The project involved flooding vast expanses of land used by the Cree for hunting and fishing in order to build reservoirs that would feed hydro-electric turbines. The Cree responded by initiating litigation. In November 1973, the Quebec Superior Court granted an interlocutory injunction that stopped all work on the project on the basis that it had been undertaken without any consultation about its environmental and social impact on Aboriginal inhabitants. The Court of Appeal reversed that decision, and leave to appeal to this Court was refused ([1975] 1 S.C.R. 48). While the litigation was under way, the Cree and Inuit communities entered into negotiations with the governments of Quebec and Canada that resulted in the signing of the Agreement in November 1975.

[61] The Agreement territory, which comprises more than 1,082,000 square kilometres extending inland from the shores of James Bay, constitutes the northernmost reaches of present‑day Quebec (the “Territory”). Its only permanent inhabitants in 1975 were 7,000 Cree and 5,000 Inuit, who had occupied the land “since time immemorial” (É. Gourdeau, “Genesis of the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement”, in A.‑G. Gagnon and G. Rocher, eds., Reflections on the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement (2002), at p. 17). The Agreement was intended to settle all Aboriginal claims to the land, establish a comprehensive and forward-looking governance regime, and provide a framework for the exercise and performance of the respective rights and obligations of the two First Nations and the two governments in the course of their ongoing relationship. In many respects, the Agreement grants the First Nations parties a form of self-government.

[62] For this purpose, the Agreement established a far-reaching governance scheme under which important powers are conferred on the Cree and Inuit. It created a framework that would govern many aspects of life in the Territory, including Aboriginal hunting and fishing, resource and hydro-electric development, the administration of justice, school administration, Aboriginal economic and social development, health and social services, local governance and — the aspect that is in issue in this case — preservation of the natural environment.

[63] The environmental protection regime will be examined in greater detail below, but it will be helpful here to mention a few of its most noteworthy features. Sections 22 and 23 of the Agreement set out detailed and comprehensive procedures for environmental impact assessments that, when drafted, were ahead of their time. Indeed, they predated analogous environmental legislation that has since been enacted by all the provinces and by the federal government. In a sense, the Agreement foreshadowed the increased knowledge of and heightened concern for environmental issues that have since developed throughout Canada. Another significant feature of the Agreement is the explicit affirmation in s. 22.2.2 of its goal of striking a balance between two overarching objectives: economic development and the protection of traditional Aboriginal uses of the land. The resulting environmental impact assessment procedure, which involves the First Nations and the governments of Quebec and Canada, rests on two key principles: guaranteeing Aboriginal participation and consultation at all stages of the assessment process, and avoiding duplication by providing for a single environmental assessment process based on the nature of the project involved and on whether it falls within provincial or federal constitutional jurisdiction.

People of influence in arctic affairs

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Aboriginal Affairs



Ms. Jean Crowder (Nanaimo—Cowichan, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, I pay tribute to Mary Simon, president of ITK.

Mary addressed key issues that affect Inuit, such as youth suicide, violence against women, obesity, diabetes, TB rates, housing conditions and the Inuits' struggle to maintain their traditions and language.

Mary held several leadership positions, including president of the Northern Quebec Inuit Association, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, Canada's ambassador for circumpolar affairs and chair of the Arctic Council. She headed the Makivik Corporation responsible for implementing the James Bay and northern Quebec agreement, and was policy co-director of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

She was one of the Inuit negotiators during the constitutional discussions that led to the recognition of aboriginal rights in the Constitution Act of 1982.

Mary Simon has been an environmental advocate for “The Right to be Cold” campaign that highlights the rapidly changing ecology of the Arctic. This campaign calls for the protection of the environment and the Inuit way of life.

I thank Mary Simon for the remarkable work she has done over the past 40 years. She has devoted her life to achieving social justice for Inuit.

May she enjoy a well-deserved break. She will be missed.

Arctic institutions

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Inuit institutions

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Since its inception in 1995, the Kitikmeot Heritage Society (KHS) has assumed the mandate of

documenting and preserving Inuinnaqtun language and heritage throughout Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region. The KHS engages the local communities of Kitikmeot by providing in‐school traditional skill workshops, accessible archives and exhibit displays, with the goal of promoting the cultural history and traditional knowledge of Nunavut’s people. As an elder‐directed organization, the KHS forefronts projects encouraging the Inuit worldviews of Ilippallianginnarniq (continuing learning) and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (traditional and modern Inuit knowledge), ensuring an underlying ethos of cultural relevance in areas of local education and information accessibility. Over the last decade, an extensive roster of publications, educational modules, and cross‐disciplinary collaborations has been successfully developed

towards these ends (see additional information at www.kitikmeotheritage.ca). http://www.tunngavik.com/files/2011/10/2011-05-01-nti-phase-i-cultural-heritage-resources-report-inventory-appedices-eng.pdf

  • Nunavut Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth (CLEY)

The Nunavut Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth (CLEY) is responsible for

policies, programs and services that support the culture and heritage of Nunavummiut. Contentworks received information from officials of CLEY on archives, place names and

archaeology. Details, including contact information, will be found in the NTI‐CA IIBA Database. Source: as above.

Government of Canada

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  • Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development

On behalf of the Auditor General of Canada, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development provides parliamentarians with objective, independent analysis and recommendations on the federal government’s efforts to protect the environment and foster sustainable development.

The Commissioner conducts performance audits, and is responsible for assessing whether federal government departments are meeting their sustainable development objectives, and overseeing the environmental petitions process.

Appointed by the Auditor General, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development is an Assistant Auditor General who leads a group of auditors specialized in environment and sustainable development.

In May 2008, Scott Vaughan was appointed Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development.1

Report on the first community access centre in the arctic:

With an enormous amount of hard work, along with a start-up grant from Industry Canada and the

Northwest Territories Department of Information Networks, the small community, lead by Mr. Belsey, managed to raise over $100,000 to equip a Community Access Centre which is called "Igalaaq" which means window in Inuktitut. Igalaaq is located in the computer lab of the elementary school and is the first Community Access Centre in the Canadian Arctic. With over 30 volunteers being part of the Access Centre team, Igalaaq can be used by anyone in the community on evenings or weekends regardless of technical experience or financial resources. To date Igalaaq has seen more than 3,000 visits in less than a year, all without theft, vandalism or disturbance to the computer lab or the school facility. Today, more than 400 people in Rankin Inlet have establshed e-mail accounts through Igalaaq. This represents over 20% of Rankin Inlet's entire population. This in a community

where many were born on the land in skin tents and igloos! 1

  • Foreign Affiars and International Trade

...The Centre's objective is to advance the international dimension of Canada's Northern Strategy while working in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), Canadian missions and other departments and agencies in Canada. CICAR provides Ottawa with a unique and innovative tool to advance this key priority of the Government of Canada.

The Centre offers high quality regional level strategic analysis, assessment and advice to inform policy directions and actions. It also strengthens and coordinates regional engagement with Arctic state partners, especially on the Arctic Council agenda. The Centre supports and works closely with the Canadian missions in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Russia and the United States to provide intelligence, analysis and advocacy on Arctic policy at the regional level...

Canadian National Committee for the International Permafrost Association

Government of Canada, Military

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University based

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ArcticNet is a Network of Centres of Excellence of Canada that brings together scientists and managers in the natural, human health and social sciences with their partners from Inuit organizations, northern communities, federal and provincial agencies and the private sector. The objective of ArcticNet is to study the impacts of climate change in the coastal Canadian Arctic. Over 145 ArcticNet researchers from 30 Canadian Universities, 8 federal and 11 provincial agencies and departments collaborate with research teams in Denmark, Finland, France, Greenland, Japan, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the USA. 1

Other

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Inuvik Community Greenhouse
Health Care

To date we have received substantial financial support through grants, contracts, and contribution agreements from territorial and federal government departments, national research granting agencies, and private foundations. We are the only health research organization to receive a grant from the Arctic Research Infrastructure Fund in 2009 which enables us to develop research space in close proximity to the regional health and social services authority in Yellowknife. 1

Links
  • Institute for Circumpolar Health Research
Sustainable Development
  • The Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG)

Leading research institutions studying the arctic

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Sources:

  1. Ranked third among world institutions for its number of papers in Arctic research.
  2. It has a high level of scientific impact.
  3. Has grown significantly recently.
  4. EC is a central hub within international and national collaboration networks.
Canadian Permafrost Conferences
Arctic Science and Technology Information System (ASTIS) (database)
Kluane Lake Research Station (KLRS)
Arctic (journal)

Arctic research stations

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Major Research Stations in the Arctic, credit: Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Critics of the current government

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Carolyn Bennett is the Liberal critic for Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development and the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency.

Highlights

Mary Simon, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, appeared before the House of Commons Defence committee in October 2009. She asserted that continued underinvestment in Northern communities threatens to undermine Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic.

“The government of Canada cannot expect the world to give full respect to arguments built on Inuit use and occupation of Arctic lands, when Inuit continue to lag so far behind other Canadians in relation to such things as minimum education, health and housing standards,” she said.

She stated that, “sovereignty must begin at home.”

In the North, their are new economic opportunities which can transform life in the North.

Bennett says that Canada must put three key principles at the core of its Arctic strategy:

  1. Indigenous peoples ought to be full and equal partners in the making of Canada's Northern policies.
  2. The federal government sufficiently invest in the North to ensure that people achieve an adequate standard of living. This includes investments in education, housing, health and infrastructure.
  3. The government improve Canada’s capacity to understand, monitor and respond to environmental changes in the Arctic, particularly as the result of climate change.

The government should include the Inuit in its preparations for the submission of claim over the Arctic seabed. This will strengthen Canada's claim when it is submitted to the United Nations in 2013.

Geography

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Canadian Arctic Archipelago
Northern Canada
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Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 10:22, 17 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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