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Contents - Winter 2009

Vol. 2 No. 1

Arctic Sovereignty: From Crisis to Opportunity (Insight Opinion Piece)

By Greg Poelzer

The North is vital to 21st-century Canada and will only increase in importance. Yet Canada is worst prepared among all eight circumpolar states to address the challenges that confront its Arctic region, and the least equipped to fully seize the Canadian North’s opportunities. This is astonishing for a country that prides itself as “The True North, Strong, and Free.”

The polar ice cap has long allowed Canada to avoid addressing external Arctic sovereignty questions in any serious way, as there was little traffic in Canadian Arctic waters during most of the 20th century. Canada treated its Arctic Canadian state as a forgotten frontier.

Domestically, Canada’s territories remain just that—territories. They are not full partners in the federal political community because Canada has not striven to ensure the full political, social, and economic development of the region and its 100,000 residents.

Canada, for example, is the only circumpolar nation that does not have a university in its Arctic region. Contrast this with the United States where more than 10,000 students graduated from the University of Alaska system between 1997 and 2004.

Canada has clearly fallen behind its northern neighbours and must address enormous challenges if it hopes to keep pace and reinvigorate the North.

Global warming presents one such challenge. The rapid melting of the polar ice cap means the Northwest Passage may be navigable in the nottoo- distant-future. Canada claims waters outside our Arctic archipelago as internal domestic waters. Both the U.S. and Europe reject this claim, contending these waters are international straits of innocent passage.

Why is this turf war over icy waters important? The Northwest Passage shaves off more than 7,000 kilometres for freight ships sailing between Asia and Europe, reducing both massive fuel costs and equally enormous CO2 emissions.

Increased ship traffic would present both an environmental threat and a tremendous economic opportunity to the Canadian North.

As Canada confronts these challenges on our Arctic waters’ surface, we also face challenges below.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) allows states around the world to extend their sovereignty based on the outer limits of their continental shelves. In theory, scientific data based on Arctic sea-bed mapping should provide an indisputable basis for determining these borders. But when the Russian Federation planted a symbolic flag at the North Pole in summer 2007, it became obvious that the UNCLOS process will not be free of dispute.

This chess match for rights to the Arctic’s seabed is crucial because an estimated 25 per cent of the world’s remaining petroleum resources lies in the Arctic. Notwithstanding the current global economic downturn, the increasing demand for oil and gas from India and China to fuel their rapidly growing economies virtually ensures these Arctic resources will be developed.

With no nuclear-powered icebreakers or nuclear-powered submarines to protect its Arctic claim, Canada is outmatched by Russia and the U.S. We can only patrol the Arctic archipelago’s fringes and regulate our own water when there is little or no ice.

Even with these obstacles, Canada has an opportunity to unleash the North’s enormous economic and social potential by providing stewardship over its lands and waters, engaging in Arctic region-building, and protecting its sovereignty.

Canada has an historic opportunity to complete nation-building from sea to sea to sea. This requires visionary leadership backed by a bold agenda focused on developing Arctic sovereignty and northern resources, beginning with the most valuable northern resource—our people.

John Diefenbaker’s northern vision ignited our enthusiasm for the North and provided major infrastructure. Today, Canada, working with northern citizens and especially Aboriginal Peoples, has the opportunity to take the necessary steps to bring the North into true partnership with the rest of Confederation.

With a commitment to nation-building, our North will be markedly different. Strengthening our Arctic defence will ensure Canadian sovereignty. Expanding northern research will provide a better understanding of Arctic environments. And investing in territorial and aboriginal governments will lead to improved health and education services, including school systems that strengthen aboriginal languages and cultures.

Only by embracing our national responsibilities in the North will we discover the benefits of being a truly northern nation.

Greg Poelzer is founding undergraduate dean of the University of the Arctic.