Like most Canadians, I’ve taken our Arctic sovereignty for granted. The north has always been there, a barren, frigid reminder of those intrepid explorers who tried to find the Northwest Passage. All that north is what makes Canada bigger than every other nation except Russia. My Grade 4 teacher spent a year or two up north and I recall her telling us that the Arctic Circle ran through her home. We thought that was cool.
I remember the somewhat fictionalized documentary about Nanook of the North and the hardships of the Eskimo lifestyle. I could identify, having to walk to school knee-deep in snow, uphill — both ways.
I haven’t been any farther north than Fort McMurray and my only relationship to the Northwest Passage is being in a hotel room with drunken journalists, trying to sing harmony on the chorus of Stan Rogers’ classic ode to those early explorers. In fact, it might have been my yodeling that calved off a few glaciers in the region.
As the world slowly runs out of oil, the Arctic polar region has become recognized as politically and economically important to the world. How much longer will Canada’s north be Canadian?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in Nunavut last week for his fourth annual summer visit — enforcing squatter’s rights if you will.
There is no international accord recognizing multilateral ownership of the Arctic; the ocean is bordered by Canada, Russia, The United States, Norway and Greenland (Denmark). A couple of summers ago a Russian submarine planted a flag on the ocean floor at the site of the North Pole. Continued exploitation of natural resources would return Russia to its former glory as a world superpower. While Canada has intentions, Russia has the Arctic ports and nuclear-powered icebreakers to back up its claim — nobody else does.
No one else was really interested in Canada’s northern extremes until global warming started to change the climate and provide what could amount to clear sailing for nations and multinational corporations to plunder its riches. Depending on whose geological survey you believe, one-quarter of the world’s oil reserves may be below the Arctic Ocean and the ocean floor is home to huge unexploited natural gas fields. As barriers to these riches literally melt away in the next decades, it will become affordable to prospect, drill and recover these fossil fuels.
Along with the riches comes a quick route to European and Asian markets since the mythical Northwest Passage from Baffin Bay to the Beaufort Sea would become open to year-round shipping. Canadians see the passage as internal waters but others claim it as an international strait. Canada also claims that because the waters around the Arctic islands are frozen most of the year they are, in effect, an extension of the land. Canada’s Inuit people live, work and hunt on the ice.
It makes more sense for the United States to back our claim to the Northwest Passage than to have it declared an international waterway open to unfettered travel by its enemies. If America wants a secure Northwest Passage, then it must be acknowledged as Canadian and we must take steps to assert our sovereignty.
Harper announced Canada's new state-of-the-art Arctic icebreaker will be named after former PC prime minister John Diefenbaker. The $720-million Diefenbreaker, will be brought into service in 2017. The prime minister has already announced eight patrol vessels will be built and put into service within five years, and the federal government will convert an abandoned zinc mine into a deepwater naval station. An army training centre will also be established in Resolute, on the shores of the Northwest Passage. These actions should send a message that Canadians know where their borders are and we are serious about their sovereignty. And we’re willing to stand on guard at remote wintry outposts to do it.
It’s been a hundred years since Roald Amundsen sailed a fishing boat from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Harper’s right: if we don’t use it, we’ll lose it.
George Brown can be reached at the Ponoka News at 403-783-3311.