Shipping Regulations and Arctic Resource Development

Earlier this week we issued a press release regarding the “Northern Canada Vessel Traffic Services Zone” Arctic shipping regulations that recently came into force.

Under the new regulations ships over 300 tonnes traveling through Arctic waters will have to register their trip. Additional measures are being put into place to prevent pollution of Arctic waters, and response times to potential oil spills have also been strengthened.

Inuit are increasingly concerned with the relationship between shipping and sustainable development. We currently work with multi-national mining companies in the Arctic who are sensitive to the fact that their traffic may interfere with the activities of local hunters. We would hope that all international shipping companies would comply with these new regulations.

That said, Inuit are still waiting to be invited to the table where policy is formulated and these matters are discussed. We live along the coasts and shorelines, and hunt in and depend upon the waters, where ships are traveling. That means we have a very large stake in the process.

We are also concerned with offshore drilling in the Arctic and which agencies and which government would be in charge of an oil spill cleanup in our waters. Those waters are much more than a potential source of non-renewable resources, or a convenient short-cut from one part of the world to another. As far as Inuit are concerned - they are quite literally the Inuit grocery store of choice.

It is from Arctic waters that we harvest much of our food, and when we see animals covered in oil and dying on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico we need to know what is beng planned with respect to drilling in the Arctic, and what plans exist in the event of a spill.