Harper heads north touts progress on Arctic strategy will, his, government, scientific, attention

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Harper heads north touts progress on Arctic strategy



OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper will travel to the Canadian Arctic on Monday for a sixth consecutive year, amid criticism from the scientific and diplomatic communities that his government's strategy is failing to address the reality of global warming.


Many of the critics have praised Harper's government for paying attention to the region after decades of neglect under previous governments. But they have all suggested that the current strategy may not be addressing environment and infrastructure concerns as much as it is focusing on economic and military priorities.


Harper said Sunday in a statement that his government has made progress on all of the issues, including economic and social development as well as protecting the environment, asserting sovereignty and providing good governance.


"Canada's north is a fundamental part of our heritage and national identity and it is a cornerstone of our government's agenda," Harper said. "I look forward to seeing that progress first-hand this year."


Harper promised in last spring's election campaign to extend the existing Dempster Highway from the Yukon and Northwest Territories, all the way up to Tuktoyaktuk — a community on the Arctic Ocean that is now threatened by global warming.


Some Canadian scientists are also hoping he will announce new investments to support Arctic research during a stop in Resolute Bay, Nunavut, at the beginning of the week.


Harper's northern tour this year will also include stops this week in Baker Lake, Nunavut, as well as Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, and Whitehorse and Haines Junction in the Yukon territory.


While many believe Harper's government is doing some of the right things to support development in the North, rapidly undergoing a transformation because of global warming, they say a lot of it is for the wrong reasons.


"It's a matter of leadership," said Louis Fortier, the scientific director of ArcticNet, an academic network hosted at Universite Laval in Quebec City.

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"I think I would tell this government that the scientific community in general is there to support Canada's northern strategy, but we have to act faster to take leadership, to take action, not to always wait for the others to make the first move, but to go ahead and do it."


The remarks followed a recent visit from Michel Rocard, France's ambassador for the polar regions, who concluded his trip by suggesting that Canada was not keeping up with Russia in terms of Arctic shipping capacity.


Cities and communities also have warned that their ice roads are disappearing, their shorelines eroding, and the ground beneath homes and public buildings melting away because of rising temperatures that are increasing much faster than other regions on the planet.


Last year, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities estimated that its northern communities needed at least $230 million to protect vulnerable buildings from the impacts of climate change. The estimate is equivalent to about $5,000 for every resident in the region.


A Natural Resources Canada report on climate-change impacts, quietly released by the government in 2007, also warned about vulnerable infrastructure, as well as shifts in biodiversity that threaten local wildlife and the way of life for local communities.


Yellowknife Mayor Gordon Van Tighem agreed that Harper has taken a special interest in the North and praised existing national infrastructure programs, such as the Building Canada Plan and the sharing of federal gas tax revenues with communities, but he noted that Canada still has a lot of catching up to do.


"In the '50s and '60s, the Canadian North was an international model but if you travel around the circumpolar world now, we're starting to lag behind, particularly in community infrastructure, because there hasn't been the financial wherewithal to maintain or upgrade it," said Van Tighem.

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Meantime, most scientists expressed concern that recently announced budget cuts and layoffs at Environment Canada could affect divisions, such as the Canadian Ice Service, which are essential for northern research.


"Even if you don't care about the ecology of the North, if you don't care about polar bears, or if you don't care about sea ice and things, we do have a huge unfunded liability there in terms of infrastructure in communities," said Duane Froese, an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in northern environmental change at the University of Alberta. "So there are big gaps right now that we're not tackling in any serious way as far as I can see."


Environment Canada declined to identify which divisions it will be cutting, "for privacy purposes, in consideration of Environment Canada employees." But in a regional breakdown, the department has indicated that 110 out of 776 positions being affected, are in the Prairie, Northern, Pacific and Yukon regions.


Fortier said the government sees and understands that climate change is the major driver of the transformation of the Arctic, but is downplaying this aspect of its northern strategy.


"The government at this time is the government of the Arctic, like the Diefenbaker government (from the 1950s and 1960s) before," Fortier said. "And I think, we have to give back to Caesar, what belongs to Caesar. That is (to say), maybe not for the right reasons, they are certainly looking after the Arctic after generations of (neglect)."


The trip marks Harper's first visit to the North since winning a majority government in the May 2 federal election. One expert on international affairs said this indicates the prime minister has a serious interest in the region.


"The fact that he's going North with no election on the horizon shows that his interest is real," said Michael Byers, Canadian Research Chair in international law and politics at the University of British Columbia.


John England, the northern research chair for NSERC, an arm's-length federal agency that offers research grants, urged the government to go one step further, to develop a binding policy with teeth to guide its plan.


"If we're not going to do it, someone else will do it for us — the international community will do it for us," said England, who also leads scientific research teams in the Arctic. "Let's have a Canadian polar policy and let's use it as our podium to tell the world how we value the North and how we plan to really establish a working vision of where we intend to go in fulfilling all of our responsibilities and opportunities there."


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Prime Minister Stephen Harper answers questions after delivering a speech announcing a new Polar class Arctic Icebreaker for the Canadian north to be named after former Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker, in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, August 28, 2008. Prime Minister Stephen Harper will travel to the Canadian Arctic on Monday for a sixth consecutive year, amid criticism from the scientific and diplomatic communities that his government’s strategy is failing to address the reality of global warming