CARC ACTIVITIES

CARC pursues an ongoing mandate with respect to the monitoring of important environmental, wildlife management, conservation, and energy issues. This involves meetings and consultation with elected leaders and officials, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and members of the public. It also involves analysing reports, conducting research, and submitting briefs to parliamentary committees and special task forces. (For example, CARC submitted briefs to parliamentary committees on the Meech Lake accord and the free-trade agreement.) In addition to these ongoing activities, CARC carried out specific work under the following programmes.

Economic Development Programme

This programme was begun in 1987 with a view to exploring the relationships between public-sector policy making, private-sector decision making, and the economic well-being of northern communities. Particular attention has been paid to the prospects for sustainable development in a part of the world that has all too often been characterized by the cycle of boom and bust. In 1987, we began:

• a study of the feasibility of a comprehensive hunter income support programme in the Northwest Territories, a scheme analogous to the one created for the Crees of northern Quebec under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement;
• the preparation of a handbook on community economic development, with a view to equipping communities and economic development officials with a better sense of how to promote small-scale economic development at the community level; and
• research on the extent to which northern aboriginal peoples benefit economically from the fur industry and associated subsistence activities.

 Policy Introduction Programme

 The Policy Introduction Programme was developed by CARC to expose young Inuit to government policy making and business decision making with respect to development in the offshore. Planning for the programme was completed in early 1987, and four Inuit students began the nine week training programme in February 1987. Training took place in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, and northern Quebec. Assistance was provided by a variety of federal departments and agencies, and by the government of the Northwest Territories, Makivik Corporation, Petro-Canada, Hydro-Quebec, and the Arctic Institute of North America.

 Women in the North Programme

 In the spring of 1987, CARC decided to undertake a special programme to examine the rapid course of economic, social, and cultural change affecting women living in the North. With the help of an advisory committee made up of northern women from a variety of backgrounds, a volume of reading materials is being developed. This will be published in 1988, along with a special issue of Northern Perspectives.

Circumpolar Programme

 In April, CARC published an issue of Northern Perspectives entitled "Canada in the International North". In September, CARC's executive director formed part of a Canadian delegation to a conference in Helsinki on arctic security and Canadian Nordic relations, organized by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. (Papers from the conference will be published by the Institute in February 1988.) In the coming year, CARC will also be involved in the production of a new book on Canada's foreign policy interests in the Arctic.

 Conferences

 CARC organized two major conferences during 1987. The first, co-sponsored with the Fur Institute of Canada, took place in Montreal on 29-30 January and examined the topic, "Native Wildlife Management, the Anti-Harvest Movement, and the Commercialization of Northern Wildlife". More than 300 people attended, and the event was recorded by the National Film Board for use in a planned documentary. The proceedings from this conference will be published early in 1988.

 The other major conference took place in Ottawa on 9-10 June. "Aboriginal Self-Government and Constitutional Reform: Setbacks, Opportunities and Arctic Experiences", was co-sponsored with the Inuit Committee on National Issues. In attendance were New Brunswick premier Richard Hatfield, national aboriginal leaders, leading academic authorities, and key government officials. The proceedings from this conference will also be published early in 1988.

Books

 In September 1987, CARC published Hinterland or Homeland? Land-Use Planning in Northern Canada. This volume includes essays by various authors on the land-use planning experience in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and northern Quebec. An ambitious publications programme is planned for 1988, including: two volumes of proceedings and summaries from the 198~1987 National Symposium on the North in the 1980s; proceedings from the June 1987 conference on aboriginal constitutional development; a reading volume on women in the North; a book on comparative wildlife management approaches in Canada and Alaska; case studies on the environmental impact of government policy making; a study of the political constraints imposed on the North as a result of post 1982 constitutional changes; and the results of various research efforts being conducted under CARC's economic development programme.

Publishing and Information

 CARC provides information and assistance to government decision makers, educators, researchers and students, northern native peoples' organizations, and members of the public. In books, monographs, and policy papers, CARC makes available the results of our research, policy studies, conferences, and workshops. We publish Northern Perspectives and Northern Decisions, to focus on current issues and events in the North. The objective of CARC's publishing programme is to give decision makers and the public clear and useful information about northern issues.

Northern Perspectives

Since 1973, Northern Perspectives has provided analyses of current policy issues important to Canada's North. Its readers include government decision makers, academics and students, consultants, and private citizens. Northern Perspectives is distributed free of charge, and is supported by donations from the public. Its circulation of 14 000 is world-wide.

 In 1986, CARC published the following issues of Northern Perspectives:

• "In Search of Common Ground: Ottawa Rethinks Its Approach to Comprehensive Claims", by John Merritt['CARC Interview: Richard Van Loon"/"A Policy in Transition"/"From Recommendations to Policy: Battling Inertia to Obtain a Land Claims Policy", by Terry Fenge and Joanne Barnaby/"Key Components of a New Federal Policy for Comprehensive Land Claims"/"South of 60°:A Legal Reminder", by Geoffrey Lester (vol. 15, no. 1, January-April, 20 pp.)
• "Canada in the Circumpolar World", including "Canada and the United States in the Arctic: Testing the Special Relationship", by Oran R. Young/"The Challenge of Northern Peoples", by Peter Jull/"Nunavut and the International Arctic", by Gordon Robertson/"CARC Interview: Finn Lynge"/"Co-operation in Arctic Science", by Walter Slipchenko/"The Canada-Scandinavia Axis", by Erik Solem /"Helsinki Discord" (vol.15, no.2, May-June 1987, 16 pp.)
• "Of Gigawatts and GRAND Designs", including "The GRAND Canal and the National Interest: When Should Rational Thinking Apply to Water Policy?", by Donald J. Gamble/"Methylmercury Contamination in Northem Canada", by Robert E. Hecky/"Environmental Protection and the James Bay Agreement: Rethinking the Committee Approach", by Robert Lanari/"The James Bay Cree: A Society Changed", by Murray CoolicanT'The Status of Hudson Bay", by Nigel Bankes (vol.15, no.3, October 1987, 16 pp.) Note: Also available in French
• "Has Glasnost Come Knocking?", by John Merritt (special edition, October 1987,4 pp.)
• "Arctic Fisheries: New Approaches for Troubled Waters", by Robert F. Keith, Terry Fenge, Peter Jacobs, and Shelagh Jane Woods/'CARC Interview: Pierre Asselin"/ "Economic Opportunities in the Commercial Fisheries of the Northwest Territories", by Dan Topolniski, Sydney Kerwan, and Allan Kristofferson/"The Arctic Marine Conservation Strategy", by Elizabeth Snider/"Arctic Fisheries Research in Canada: An Informal Perspective", by G. Burton Ayles (vol. 15, no. 4, November 1987, 16 PP.)
• "A Question of Degrees", including "Atmospheric and Climatic Change in the Canadian Arctic: Causes, Effects, and Impacts", by Barrie Maxwell/'Effects of Climatic Change on Northem Pemmafrost", by Stuart A. Harris/"Arctic Ice Cores: Putting Present Climate into Perspective", by Roy. M. Koerner/"Climate and People in the Prehistoric Arctic", by Robert McGhee/"The Challenge of Climatic Change", by François Bregha (vol. 15, no. 5, December 1987, 16 pp.)

 In our twice-monthly bulletin, Northern Decisions, we report on regulatory and policy decisions for natural resources management north of 60°. Items reported include important policy, administrative, regulatory, and management decisions; applications for approvals of permits, licences, and authorities; studies undertaken; and reports released. We publish a subject index once a year.

 Publication of Northern Decisions began in 1983, funded under CARC's Northern Decisions Study by the Donner Canadian Foundation. It is now supported by subscribers-federal, provincial, and territorial governments, universities, industry, native peoples' organizations, and consultants-in Canada, the United States, and Europe. (Subscriptions are $225 per year. A reduced rate is available to northern communities and non-profit organizations.)