Inuit: the bedrock of Arctic Sovereignty

As the Russians set sail to stake their claim, Canada needs more than new patrol ships

Last year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper travelled to the Arctic. Press speculation is that he will return this summer. His interest in the Arctic is no doubt genuine, and likely heightened this week with the news that a Russian expedition has set sail for the North Pole, where it plans to send a mini-submarine crew to plant a flag on the seabed and assert the Kremlin's rights to the Arctic.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Harper responded to questions on Canadian sovereignty and jurisdiction over Arctic waters and seabeds by announcing a multibillion-dollar commitment to buying new patrol vessels. He has told audiences of foreign businessmen that the untapped oil, gas and mineral riches of the Arctic are a major factor in his description of Canada as an energy and mining "superpower."

But alongside these news stories are less upbeat ones. Suicides rates among young Inuit have reached horrific levels, sapping hope from those left behind as surely as they testify to the loss of all hope by those who choose to put an end to everything. The Canadian Medical Journal reports that shabby and overcrowded housing in Nunavut has created the highest rate of hospital admissions in the world for infants with respiratory infections.

Fourteen years after promises made in the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, and despite the reality that the Arctic is the canary in the mineshaft of global climate change, the federal government still does not have an overall plan for environmental monitoring. PricewaterhouseCoopers has found that $65-million is being spent annually to recruit and relocate southerners to fill public-sector jobs in the eastern and central Arctic. At the same time, the federal government sits on the 2006 report by former B.C. Supreme Court justice Thomas Berger that says only bold and concerted action will turn around a 75-per-cent high-school dropout rate and allow Inuit to fill badly needed jobs.

It is sometimes said that war is too important to be left to the generals. In Canada's case, Arctic sovereignty is too important to be treated as just an adjunct to foreign relations or as a stage for foreign investment. It must be built from the inside out.

The bedrock of Canada's status as an Arctic nation is the history of use and occupation of Arctic lands and waters by Inuit for thousands of years. Inuit are, and expect to remain, the permanent majority population of the Arctic. This is helpful for Canada when defending claims of sovereignty against other nations. Coherent policy-making for the Arctic must commit to two things: a credible power-sharing partnership between Inuit and the government; and a determination to overcome the obvious gaps in basic measurements of well-being that separate Inuit from all other Canadians.

Pursuing, let alone achieving, these things will not be easy. But turning a blind eye or waiting passively on events is a sure recipe for failure.

As Inuit, we have much work to do that only we can do for ourselves. For those things, we ask for the solidarity of our fellow Canadians. But the federal government has special responsibilities in the Arctic as well. In meeting those responsibilities, it could start with a practical program of action.

Restore and deliver on the 2005 Kelowna accord: The huge gaps in health, education and housing between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians remain a source of shame at home and abroad for all of us. Closing these gaps will require substantial public-sector investment. The Harper government's trashing of the 19-party accord at the beginning of its mandate was a huge mistake. But when you break something, you should try to fix it.

Establish a Kelowna II for economic development: The problem with the Kelowna accord was not that it was too ambitious, but that it wasn't ambitious enough. We need to kick-start economic development for aboriginal peoples and break out of the dependency trap. In the Arctic, there are huge opportunities for diversified economic development, but we lack such obvious tools as shipping facilities, basic financial services for small-scale entrepreneurs and adequate budgets for baseline geological surveying to facilitate mineral exploration.

Implementing modern land claims agreements promptly and fairly: Most of the northern half of Canada is now covered by power-sharing agreements between aboriginal peoples and the Crown in the form of modern land claims agreements. But, as the Auditor-General has pointed out to Parliament on more than one occasion, these agreements are not meeting core objectives due to half-hearted implementation efforts by the federal government.

This half-heartedness is costly. Ottawa recently had to sign a $1.4-billion out-of-court settlement with James Bay Crees to make up for 30 years of federal sins of omission. In Nunavut last year, Inuit filed a $1-billion lawsuit against the Crown because the federal government refuses to act on an independent conciliator's report on implementation failures. Ottawa's evasiveness in implementing agreements alienates aboriginal peoples across the country and undercuts investor confidence in the very areas governed by the agreements.

Be creative in boosting Canada's Arctic presence: The purchase of new patrol ships will no doubt allow Ottawa to wave the flag more frequently in some Arctic areas. But there are other ways to goose up Arctic surveillance at a fraction of the cost - create a general environmental monitoring system; dramatically expand the Canadian Rangers program; set up comprehensive programs to allow hunters to continue to make use of lands and waters throughout the Arctic; and construct small-craft harbours and remove discriminatory fisheries allocation policies to build up an Arctic-based commercial fishing fleet that can make use of Arctic waters for value-added civilian purposes.

We are pleased to see the Prime Minister's genuine interest in the Arctic and his willingness to back up that interest with bold pronouncements and money. But let's assert our Arctic sovereignty in ways that impress outsiders with the creativity and practicality of our domestic policies, building up the well-being of the Inuit communities of the Arctic, as well as the size and strength of our ships. Sovereignty, after all, begins at home.

Published in the Globe & Mail