In October 1997, fourteen Arctic specialists met in Calgary to review the Report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade — "Canada and the Circumpolar World: Meeting the Challenges of Cooperation into the Twenty-First Century" (hereinafter referred to as "Meeting the Challenges"). Hosted by the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee and supported by the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, the Calgary Working Group (CWG) assessed the report and agreed on further initiatives to serve Canada’s circumpolar interests and foreign policy.

"Meeting the Challenges" has many strengths; however, it should have expressed more forcefully the need to improve Canada’s ability in both domestic and international policy spheres to act as a uniquely northern society and to do so with coherence, respect, and a sense of self-reliance rooted in interdependence. There are clear signs of strengthening north-to-north connections within Canada and between northern Canadians and our circumpolar neighbours. There are fewer signs of novel north-south linkages.

Canada is not taking its expected strong role in circumpolar affairs; rather, it seems perplexed and unsure, which erodes its credibility in circumpolar fora.

The Government of Canada’s efforts with respect to the Arctic Council and, more generally, circumpolar policy have lagged and circumpolar affairs have not received due regard. The CWG found that government policies and "Meeting the Challenges" have failed to appreciate fully the importance of "upward guidance" to sustainability initiatives and to Canada’s participation in the Arctic Council and other circumpolar and international arrangements.[1] There is a lack of attention to and support for the bottom-up initiatives of Aboriginal and territorial government organizations on sustainable development, governance, and circumpolar cooperation.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

• Sustainable development in the Arctic is multi-faceted and evolving.
• Sustainability requires that the capacity of societal and ecological systems to change and adapt be preserved and enhanced.
• "Meeting the Challenges" notes the need to enhance opportunities for northerners to develop their own capacities and actions for sustainability. This must be endorsed and acted upon.
• The sustainable development principles outlined in "Meeting the Challenges" (subsistence preference; co-management; subsidiarity; precautionary principle; primacy of prior rights and clear responsibilities; true cost accounting; and environmentally appropriate technologies and practices) should be expanded and policies should respect recognized principles of ecological and social sustainability.
• Sustainability in the Arctic requires that domestic and international alliances among regional and sub-regional organizations with business and inter- cultural links be further developed and strengthened.
• More attention to, and support for, regional and sub-regional initiatives is required to provide the foundation for sustainable development in the Arctic. East-west (circumpolar) relations are strengthening as residents of northern communities become directly engaged in global social processes such as UNCED-Rio. The domestic challenge is to connect Arctic issues, places, and peoples with the rest of Canada.

Treaty making, devolution, and security issues are re-shaping the nature of Arctic governance. They are characterized by a fragility that requires Canada to provide sensitive support and opportunities to adapt and to accept the guidance offered by regional and local initiatives in building national and international policies.

Treaty making: Canadian Leadership

Around the circumpolar Arctic the structure, functions, and processes of governance are in flux.

• The Canadian approach to modern treaties is inspiring other circumpolar societies; as they adapt and build on Canadian experiences we, in turn, must evolve by observing theirs.
• Treaty making promotes a level of competence at the community and regional levels that is giving rise to imaginative sustainable development initiatives.
• Expectations of the new — and therefore fragile — treaties are high, yet capacities are limited and evaluations of efforts to date, against criteria such as realistic goals, demography, resources, and world pressure, are needed.

We are faced with managing contradictions: initiatives designed to enhance and protect unique local economies and cultures while globalization draws nation states into increasingly broader arrangements linking economies and legal regimes. One of the key challenges is to design and implement rules, practices, and technologies that promote, protect, and enhance sustainable development.

Sub-national organizations — the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, the Saami Council, the Northern Forum, and the State of Alaska — are making contributions to sustainable development agendas for the North. The CWG urges Canada to promote a stronger international voice for Arctic peoples through support for the UN Working Group on Indigenous Peoples in its efforts to enhance indigenous cultures and economies.

• The CWG supports recommendations 8, 9, and 31 in "Meeting the Challenges," which propose increased representation and more meaningful roles for Aboriginal, regional, and sub-regional organizations in the Arctic Council and national policy-making processes.

The CWG supports the Standing Committee’s recognition of a broadened concept of national security. For people in the Arctic — in fact, throughout the world — it now refers not only to matters of defending one’s territorial sovereignty or national interests but also to matters of economic, cultural, social, linguistic, and environmental security.

• Impact and Benefit Agreements between resource developers and Aboriginal organizations are a reflection that local and regional development prospers to a greater degree when both parties are economically secure. With Aboriginal peoples negotiating directly with developers, various socio-economic benefits — of which financial transfers are only a part — are being achieved. These are widely seen as bringing legal certainty — security — to economic, social, cultural, and environmental affairs.

The CWG strongly advocates the need for Arctic science policy that is broad and holistic, organized and inter-related, continuous, and communicable. It must be supported with an appropriate commitment of resources, facilities, and training of scientific personnel, including northerners.

• The CWG is particularly concerned about the dearth of Canadian social science research in the Arctic. Much of the discourse on Arctic science demonstrates insufficient appreciation of the nature of the Arctic and of what needs to be known. Canada is basing major policy decisions involving sustainable economies; environmental assessment; protection and mitigation; and socio-cultural change on incomplete scientific information. They may not be the best decisions.
• In formulating Arctic policies, too little attention is given to existing information. Traditional, or indigenous, knowledge adds considerably to the growing information bank available for building policies and practices. Governments and other agencies should support the improvement of ways to use both scientific and traditional knowledge systems in policy making.
• Several phases of the science process — problem identification, priority setting, project design and implementation, interpretation, and evaluation — should include the guidance available from regional and sub-regional interests.
• Distinctive Arctic impacts have not been adequately recognized in international policy areas such as climate change agreements and heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants protocols.

ARCTIC COUNCIL

Although the Government of Canada applied significant political energy to establishing the Arctic Council, during its tenure as chair of the Senior Arctic Officials Committee it has demonstrated less interest and has committed inadequate financial and human resources to ensure the council’s effective operation.

• The Office of the Arctic Ambassador must reach out directly to Canada’s northern peoples and to others across the circumpolar Arctic. The ambassador must have the resources to engage enough highly capable personnel to make Canada’s leadership effective.
• Council membership should be openly discussed and carefully considered. The role of Aboriginal governments, northern public governments, and the Northern Forum should be defined.
• The council’s agenda should include comparative research, cooperative and collaborative scientific associations, interdisciplinary research, international communications initiatives, nuclear wastes, and traditional knowledge.
• The council should be encouraged to develop a communications strategy to ensure its concerns are "top-of-mind" in key decision-making centres and to inform the rest of the world about the circumpolar Arctic.

"Meeting the Challenges" acknowledges that the Canadian Polar Commission (CPC) finds little favour among northerners and the scientific community and has little impact in Ottawa among political and administrative officials. Over the past few years the CPC’s programs did little to advance the cause of science and often duplicated efforts undertaken by others. A revitalized and re-directed CPC is essential to inform policy choices and to elaborate a forward-looking strategy. The CWG supports proper funding for a renewed CPC.

• The CPC was never intended as a top-down organization, but rather as one that would listen to and, on reflection, accurately voice the needs of northerners and the Canadian scientific community. The original purpose remains important and the means of achieving that purpose remain valid. Its 1991 mandate still offers a sound basis for an effective CPC but should be updated.
• Canada’s participation in Arctic Council discussions must be backed by the very best in science. A vital CPC will be needed to champion support of focused, balanced, and imaginative approaches to Arctic science.

The Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade expects to convene meetings in 1998 to hear from interested parties and to receive the government’s response to "Meeting the Challenges."

• The May 1998 Whitehorse Circumpolar Conference will be an important opportunity to further the debate on meeting circumpolar needs.
• Sound knowledge through research is a wise investment. Financial support for circumpolar and northern research in Canada must increase. Examination of new corporate research initiatives, royalties, taxation, and other avenues is timely.
• Canada needs a permanent forum in which northern and circumpolar issues are dealt with continuously. This mechanism should link the federal interests of DFAIT, DFO, DIAND, DOE, Health Canada, and NRCan and agencies such as CIDA and IDRC with those of northern peoples, regional and sub-regional organizations, and governments.