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Canadian Military Will Defend Claim Over Arctic Waters: Prime Minister

Posted on: Sunday, 13 August 2006, 18:00 CDT

By DENE MOORE

IQALUIT, Nunavut (CP) - The world has taken notice of the vast economic potential of the Far North, and it is vital that Canada demonstrate its sovereignty over the rich waters off its Arctic coast, says Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Harper returned Sunday from a short stay in the northernmost community in the world, the remote military outpost in Alert, Nunavut, on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island.

Alert, along with Arctic waters 200 nautical miles off the northern shore, are Canadian territory, the prime minister said, and the military will defend that claim.

"The economics and the strategic value of northern resource development are growing more attractive and critical to our nation," Harper said during a speech in front of the Nunavut legislature on Saturday, the first day of his first visit to the northern territories.

"And trust me, it's not only Canadians who are noticing. It's no exaggeration to say that the need to assert our sovereignty and take action to protect our territorial integrity in the Arctic has never been more urgent."

A high-profile military exercise in the Beaufort Sea has just wrapped up, and another in the eastern Arctic, Operation Lancaster, is getting underway.

Harper said lax enforcement by previous governments allowed foreign vessels to enter those waters without the permission or even awareness of Canadian officials.

U.S. government vessels have made at least three incursions into the Northwest Passage without informing Canada, most recently in 1995, when a U.S. navy submarine traversed the waters.

Canada's southern neighbour has not ratified the international Law of the Sea, which recognizes a 200-nautical-mile, or 370-kilometre, exclusive economic zone off a country's coast.

"Any such voyage represents a potential threat to Canadian safety and security," Harper said on the weekend. "We always need to know who is in our waters and why they are there."

To that end, the Conservative government has promised increased military spending in the Far North, as well as a deep-sea port.

Some scientists believe that in as little as a decade, global warming could open the northern shipping route linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to year-round traffic.

While some nations would like the northern waters to be international, falling under the jurisdiction of no specific country, Harper said the Arctic is no different than the Atlantic or Pacific, where Canada's 200-mile limit is undisputed.

There is also major potential for oil and gas in the Arctic offshore.

Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik welcomed Harper's approach.

"It could have a major impact on our territory if there were unregulated shipping activity happening in the Northwest Passage," Okalik said after meeting with Harper over the weekend. "We would have no way of controlling what took place if that were determined to be international waters. That's a real concern."

But the territory is just as interested in the infrastructure that could accompany an increased military presence.

"I'd love to see more infrastructure so we can stimulate our economy in terms of mineral development and oil and gas," Okalik said.

Duane Smith, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, said the lack of a federal government presence in the past has made the region vulnerable to claims from other nations.

"It's a large territory," Smith said. "They have to demonstrate that Canada is using the area in the first place."

But he urged Ottawa to balance military initiatives with social spending to ease the critical social issues facing the Inuit, a people whose presence in the Far North has maintained Canada's claim to the territory.

Source: Canadian Press

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