Nunavut issues left out in cold during election

Conservative leader Stephen Harper. (FILE PHOTO)

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. (FILE PHOTO)

NDP leader Jack Layton. (FILE PHOTO)

Green Party leader Elizabeth May. (PHOTO BY JO-ANN RICHARDS/HANDOUT)

So far, the federal election campaign has focused on the national economy, health care, and plenty of nasty personal attacks between the major political parties.

There’s little sign that issues specific to Canada’s North will play much of an issue in the national campaign, especially since the three main parties are battling one another for seats in cities like Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver.

Here, presented in alphabetical order, are summaries of the Arctic components of each of the national party platforms.

Election day is May 2, advance polls are scheduled for April 22, 23 and 25, and voter information is available in English, French and Inuktitut at the Elections Canada website.

Conservatives

The Conservative Party is still touting new ships for the Coast Guard and says new 98 vessels promised in previous years are under construction or will soon be.

The Tories promise to give the Coast Guard the power to enforce criminal law in Canadian waters and establish armed boarding teams consisting of Coast Guard and RCMP personnel.

Both the Canadian Forces and RCMP have practiced staging armed boardings from Coast Guard vessels during sovereignty operations in previous years. They also pledge to arm certain Coast Guard ships, but don’t specify which ones.

The platform also contains promises to expand Northern adult education, promote green energy in Northern communities and build an all-weather road connecting Inuvik and Tuktuyaktuk, all measures contained in last month’s defeated federal budget.

Green Party

The Green Party takes a lot of heat in the North for its opposition to commercial sealing and whaling.

Their platform document, Vision Green, condemns both, while making exceptions for aboriginal subsistence hunting.

But it describes whale and seal hunting as a “threat to the marine ecosystem” and opposes Inuit hunting of bowheads, claiming the species is endangered.

The Greens propose more infrastructure, research and sustainability projects for Northern communities, including local renewable power generation and a pan-Arctic waste management strategy.

They also want to follow through on the construction of a polar-class icebreaker.

Vision Green also includes promises to increase the amount of Arctic lands and waters protected from development, including an international development-free zone similar to Antarctica, and calls for a stronger Arctic Council.

The Greens want to reinstate the position of circumpolar ambassador, which the Conservatives axed in 2006.

Liberals

Much of the Liberal Party’s Arctic policy is found in the foreign affairs section of their platform document.

Like the Greens, the Liberals want to reinstate the circumpolar ambassador’s position and want to see a permanent secretariat for the Arctic Council, as well as an expanded mandate. They also call for a cooperative, international Arctic mapping exercise.

The Liberals criticize the Conservatives’ sometimes-belligerent approach towards Arctic sovereignty.

Instead, the Liberal platform calls for “action on northern issues like education, jobs, natural resource development, health care, infrastructure, environment and climate change, and preserving traditional ways of life.”

But there’s little in the way of specific policy proposals. The Liberals do, however, propose a moratorium on oil exploration in Arctic waters while an independent analysis of the risks of Arctic drilling is carried out.

“There is no technology in place to clean up an oil spill under Arctic ice,” the document states.

New Democratic Party

There isn’t much specifically for the Arctic in the NDP platform — the word Arctic doesn’t even appear in their platform document — but the party does say it wants to “build a new partnership on a nation-to-nation basis with First Nations, Inuit and Metis.”

The NDP promises to increase the amount of capital available for aboriginal business, improving housing and municipal infrastructure, and spending $1 billion over four years on aboriginal education.

It proposes a Northern highway fund, starting with the construction of a road from Inuvik to Tuktuyaktuk. The NDP also says it will extend the 15 per cent mineral exploration tax credit for three years, through 2015.

The party also proposes annual contributions to a fund for government shipbuilding. The NDP says this would ensure stable funding for both new Navy and Coast Guard ships.

The NDP wants to put the proceeds from the government’s wireless broadcast spectrum auction towards funding high-speed internet in remote and rural parts of the country and wants private Internet service providers to contribute money to the project.

The fringe parties

Coherent statements on Arctic policies from Canada’s cluster of fringe parties are sometimes hard to find. But a few put forward specific ideas.

The Progressive Canadian Party says it wants to help Arctic communities “serve the world with the export of more oil, natural gas and diamonds.”

The Communist Party of Canada says it wants government-set price controls on staple foods in Northern communities. Neither are running candidates in Nunavut.