October 27, 2011

International

Circumpolar countries to work on polar bear plan (October 26, 2011): Circumpolar countries want to make sure the polar bear will survive in a changing Arctic. Two years from now, Canada will work with Norway, Russia, the U.S. and Greenland on an international plan to protect and research the animals. First, countries will complete their own management plans. Officials from the five countries where polar bears live wrapped up a meeting in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Wednesday.

Polar bear conservation meeting ends with nod to traditional knowledge (October 26, 2011): "Science, traditional ecological knowledge" will guide future circumpolar action plan Canada, the United States, Greenland, Russia and Norway will develop a joint circumpolar action plan to guide polar bear conservation efforts, said delegates to this week’s international meeting on polar bear conservation in Iqaluit. This circumpolar action plan will be international in scope — covering the entire circumpolar range of polar bears.

Big chunk of Arctic terrain up for oil, gas leases (October 26, 2011): The state will offer oil and gas investors an additional 200,000 acres at an oil and gas lease sale of Arctic land. Set for early December in Anchorage's Dena'ina Center, the state is offering investors some 14.7 million acres in the near-shore Beaufort Sea, the North Slope and the North Slope Foothills.

Russia nears approval of enclosed, high Arctic city (October 26, 2011): According to the UK's Daily Mail, architects in Russia are in the process of securing government approval and funding to build a completely enclosed, space-station-like city in the country's high Arctic to aid efforts to reach fossil fuels believed to lie nearby. The estimated $8-billion project would result in a fully functioning city and research facility, complete with its own self-sufficient food production, a near-zero waste handling system, and a wholly artificial climate and life-support system.

Outlining Arctic legislation (October 26, 2011): To the order of Russia’s Ministry on Regional Development, a council on production powers (a research center subordinated to the Academy of Science and Economics Ministry) has compiled a report on the Artic zone. The document will draft out a concept for the federal law ‘On the Arctic Zone of Russia’. Be that Arctic exploration projects, expeditions, opening of new emergency stations or weather watch offices, the projects are regulated by different regional and federal programmes without any linking interface.

National

Canada's man in motion rolls into Ottawa (October 26, 2011): Canada's Man in Motion Rick Hansen rolled into the capital region on Wednesday as part of his 25th anniversary fire. His stop in Ottawa included the Museum of Civilization, the Ottawa Hospital General campus and Parliament Hill's Centennial flame. Hansen's stop at the Museum of Civilization was to help solidify his foundation's commitment to the Aboriginal community.

Rick Hansen’s foundation partners with ITK (October 26, 2011): "We are honoured to be working together to inspire and foster leadership among youth" Rick Hansen, the Canadian paralympian and fundraiser who has dedicated his life to helping people disabled by spinal cord injuries, recently visited Iqaluit — and now his foundation wants to build on the success of that visit to Nunavut. The Rick Hansen Foundation and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami announced Oct. 26 that they’ve signed an agreement “to meaningfully engage Inuit in the activities of the foundation in a way that respects Inuit languages, traditions, protocols and cultures.”

CanNor to implement audit recommendations (October 26, 2011): The federal government says it will implement all the recommendations of an audit on its northern development agency after the review found that CanNor was regularly breaking the law when it comes to contracts, travel and financial management. The Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, considered the centrepiece of the government's northern economic strategy, is accused of breaking two sections of the law, according to a final audit, CBC News has learned.

Longer sentences for youths will do more harm: expert (October 26, 2011): Crime bill goes too far, MPs told Increasing jail terms for young offenders will have no impact on their behaviour and will likely make it more difficult to re-integrate them into society, a specialist in youth crime told the allparty House of Commons justice and human rights committee Tuesday. “Young people committing offences are not considering the longterm consequences,” said Queen’s University professor Nicholas Bala, who is critical of proposals in the Conservative government’s proposed omnibus crime legislation that would provide for longer sentences and more pretrial custody for certain crimes.

Regional

Bob McLeod chosen as N.W.T. premier (October 26, 2011): Yellowknife South MLA Bob McLeod has been selected as the new premier of the Northwest Territories, after MLAs voted in a secret ballot in the legislative assembly in Yellowknife just after noon MT. The N.W.T. has no political parties, and its legislative assembly is run by consensus government, where the individual MLAs decide which of them becomes premier.

N.W.T. cabinet seats chosen (October 26, 2011): After a day of speeches, questions and voting, the Northwest Territories now has a new cabinet. The new ministers are: Inuvik Twin Lakes MLA Robert C. McLeod, Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay, Great Slave MLA Glen Abernethy, Thebacha MLA Michael Miltenberger, Monfwi MLA Jackson Lafferty, Tu Nedhe MLA Tom Beaulieu

MLAs pepper Nutrition North officials with complaints (October 26, 2011): MLAs want program to expand subsidies for country foods Nunavut MLAs, who spent Oct. 25 in the legislature grilling officials from Nutrition North Canada, want to know why the six-month-old program has yet to benefit the “average Joe Inuk.” Many MLAs, including Nunavut’s premier Eva Aariak, said Nunavummiut must have more access to country foods,  if Nutrition North wants to encourage people in the North to eat more nutritious food.

Puvirnituq-made umiaks bound for the big screen (October 26, 2011): Film "Maïna" relates saga of Innu woman in "the land of ice" A group of students at Puvirnituq’s Iguarsivik School say they can’t wait until the film Maïna makes it into movie theatres. Students in Alain Cloutier’s class recently crafted two umiaks for the made-in-Quebec film, which is now in production in Mingan, an Innu reserve on Quebec’s Lower North Shore.

Nunavut food guide puts spotlight on country foods (October 27, 2011): "You don’t need to eat caribou with a side of rice and peas to be healthy" Looking for something healthy to eat? The new edition of Nunavut’s food guide hopes to direct people in Nunavut to country foods. In the guide, launched Oct. 26 at the legislative assembly, country foods are featured separately from the four-food group model promoted in Canada’s food guide.

Nunavut lowers gas and fuel oil price (October 27, 2011): “When we can maintain, or lower the price…we will"Nunavut homeowners will pay less to heat their homes this winter, following the Government of Nunavut’s Oct. 26 announcement that the price of diesel and gasoline is being lowered effective Nov. 1. Home heating fuel is slated to drop by five cents per litre. Nunavummiut will also see a reduction in the price of gasoline, which will go down by 10 cents per litre.

Tweaking Nutrition North (October 25, 2011): Nunavut MLAs, meeting together as committee of the whole, continued hearings Oct. 25 that began this past June on the federal government’s Nutrition North Canada program. Don’t expect much. If MLAs were as serious about this issue as they claim, they would have got involved much earlier. Ottawa announced the Nutrition North Canada program in Iqaluit on May 21, 2010.

University team heading to Labrador (October 24, 2011): Faculty, staff and students from Memorial University are heading to Port Hope Simpson next month to learn more about the region’s needs and to look for ways in which scientific studies could help both the communities and the researchers. The university’s Harris Centre will be hosting a public policy forum at Bayside Academy in Port Hope Simpson Nov. 4.

Climate Change

Polar bear campaign seeks 'last ice' Arctic preserve (October 26, 2011): The plight of the polar bear is so dire due to the shrinking of sea ice crucial to its habitat that some scientists are musing about moving them to a "last ice area" in the high Arctic. The belief is that polar bear survival is reaching a tipping point because of the retreating sea ice. Currently, there are 150 to 160 ice-free days in the Arctic each year. Once that number reaches 170, Andrew Derocher, a University of Alberta polar bear researcher, frets the bear population will decline by up to 40 per cent.

Other

Film series aims to bring Inuit culture, history into the public eye (October 26, 2011): The images range from quaint and cliché, to poignant and squirm-in-your-seat uncomfortable. Some are the very earliest images of Inuit living in the far north captured on film and have languished in the archives of the National Film Board for decades, others are new features, tracing dark corners of the history earlier productions omitted. Two dozen of the approximately 110 films about Inuit in the NFB collection have been remastered and brought together in a box set to be released on Nov. 2 in Ottawa at a conference of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national organization representing Inuit in Canada.

Eskimo name under fire (October 26, 2011): Backlash over use of the phrase "You are talking Eskimo" in an animated video about the Canadian Wheat Board now has Edmonton Eskimos coach Kavis Reed playing defence. Use of the word Eskimo has some in Edmonton calling for the Green and Gold to find a new name, but Reed says the name shouldn't be seen in a negative light. "I just don't see it that way. When people use a name that is related to a certain group of people, in many respects, it's seen as an honour," he said Wednesday.

Camera traps catch Arctic predators in the act (October 26, 2011): A gripping new set of photos from camera traps in the Alaskan Arctic catch animals in the carnivorous act of preying on the eggs and the young of nesting birds, showing how these predators may be benefitting and migratory birds suffering from human activity in the area.

Why is Facebook building a server farm near the Arctic Circle? (October 27, 2011): Facebook says its new server farm on the edge of the Arctic Circle — its first outside the U.S. — will improve performance for European users of the social networking site. Facebook confirmed Thursday it had picked the northern Swedish city of Lulea for the data centre partly because of the cold climate — crucial for keeping the servers cool — and access to renewable energy from nearby hydropower facilities.