Inuit, Climate Change and Northern Development

By Mary Simon and Duane Smith

The Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recently urged states worldwide to look North. Why? Because the Arctic is the world’s “barometer” for climate change. What is happening in the Arctic now will occur further south in years to come.

You can see, feel, hear, and touch the impacts of the globe’s changing climate in the Arctic. Inuit have for almost 20 years reported melting glaciers and permafrost, shorter winters, longer summers, and species of birds and insects never seen before.

Lengthening summers and disappearing sea ice led the 300 scientists from 15 countries who prepared the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment—released in 2005 to comment worldwide—to project severe and accelerating social and cultural impacts in the Arctic. As well they projected easier access to oil, gas and minerals in the Arctic, and greatly accelerated development. More than 25 percent of the world’s remaining hydrocarbons are thought to be in the circumpolar world, including a sizeable proportion in northern Canada. Further development of Alberta’s oil sands is dependent, in part, on natural gas from the Beaufort Sea region—the fuel to separate oil from sand.

The Northwest Passage seems destined to become a shipping route connecting China and Japan with the eastern seaboard of North America and Western Europe. Challenges to Canada’s Arctic sovereignty may still be years away, but they are real. In 2008 the eight Arctic states that make up the Arctic Council will receive an assessment and projection of the likely use of the Northwest Passage in 2020 and 2050. Others are preparing for the future of our Arctic.

The Inuit of the Arctic regions are permanent residents of the Arctic and we are proud Canadians. As a sign of our commitment to Canada we have negotiated far-reaching land claims and self-government agreements with the Government of Canada.

The 1993 Nunavut Land Claims Agreement acknowledges our contribution to Canada’s Arctic sovereignty. Yet the Auditor General of Canada says the Government of Canada is not doing all that it should to implement our agreements. Aboriginal peoples from northern BC, Yukon, NWT, Nunavut, and Nunavik (northern Quebec) tell the same story: lack of commitment to implement critically important negotiated agreements. These land claims agreements, or “modern treaties,” are the building blocks that govern the ground rules of resource development in large parts of Canada—they can not lightly be ignored. Inuit in Nunatsiavut (Labrador) have just recently signed their final agreement, and the Nunatsiavut Government has just elected new leaders. We hope history does not repeat itself in the implementation phase for Nunatsiavut Inuit in Labrador.

The best way to address the national and internationally important issues that climate change raises in the Canadian Arctic—including accelerated resource development and sovereignty—is through a partnership between Inuit and the Government of Canada. We would like a clear indication from the federal Government that they agree.

Canada’s strongest card in the Arctic sovereignty debate is the fact that Canadian Inuit use and occupy the disputed waters of the Northwest Passage, as we have done for centuries. As the late Mark R. Gordon, an Inuit leader from Nunavik, said when Canada’s Arctic sovereignty was challenged by the United States in 1985: “We will hold up the flag for you!” At issue now is our continued ability to do so in the face of climate change.

For the sake of the Arctic — Canada’s Arctic — we invite the Government of Canada to work with us. Together we must look at the big picture, the long-term and the far horizon.

Mary Simon is President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.
Duane Smith is President of Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada.

Published in The Hill Times