A northern economic strategy?

Within its 90-minute torrent of pretend sincerity, the Paul Martin government’s throne speech this past Tuesday actually contained – surprise, surprise – the odd promise that looked real.

One of them is sure to pique the interest of Nunavut government officials, and their counterparts in Yukon and the NWT: Martin’s promise to develop a “northern strategy” on economic development.

The throne-speech statement says the federal government will “develop a Northern strategy, ensuring that economic development related to energy and mining is brought on stream in partnership with Northern Canadians, based on stewardship of our most fragile northern ecosystems.”

This is not a complete surprise. At last fall’s meeting of northern development ministers in Iqaluit, the former DIAND minister, Bob Nault, said officials from the territories, provinces with northern regions, and the federal government were already talking about such a strategy.

But what’s new is that Ottawa has now made a public commitment.

There are, however, unanswered questions. But the only one that matters is this: Will it help Nunavut residents get more jobs, and more business opportunities?

Based on the narrow words contained in the statement, for now, the answer is no. It refers only to “economic development related to energy and mining.” And the statement is carefully crafted to avoid any reference to education or social development, areas where Nunavut’s needs are great.

On the other hand, the federal government has no coherent northern policies of any kind now. So any effort aimed at clarifying what Ottawa should and should not do in the northern territories is to be welcomed. And any effort that actually commits Ottawa to providing concrete help is even better.

But the federal government needs clear northern development policies that go beyond non-renewable-resource development, important though such development may be. If not, many Nunavummiut will not share its benefits.

The Conference Board of Canada, in its 2001 report on Nunavut’s economic outlook, said the development of Nunavut’s “human capital” – a fancy term for “people” – is just as important as the development of physical infrastructure, which Nunavut also needs more of.

So any “northern strategy” needs to acknowledge that Nunavut needs help with education, adult training, health care and housing to complement whatever Ottawa does to facilitate resource extraction.

And any northern strategy must also recognize that the three northern territories are all different from one another, and require different approaches from Ottawa. Since 1999, the economy of the Northwest Territories has moved rapidly in the direction of self-sufficiency. People there are even beginning to talk about provincehood in the not-so-distant future. A narrow focus on economic development alone may be sufficient for the NWT.

Nunavut, on the other hand, is as dependent as ever. And any new “northern strategy” should be flexible enough to recognize that Nunavut needs a different approach than the NWT and Yukon.

Federal policy should honestly acknowledge that Nunavut is still a work-in-progress, and that any new northern development policy should deal with a wide range of issues, including social, and even political development.

Social development, after all, is related to political development in a direct way. If the Nunavut government’s elected officials cannot deliver new social housing, or better schools and health care, the people of Nunavut will not only turn against them. They will turn against Nunavut itself. JB