Ottawa considers circumpolar affairs department

By the time the International Polar Year rolls around in 2007-08, Canada may have a new federal circumpolar affairs department.

The creation of such a department is part of a proposal that’s circulating in Ottawa — and, is apparently meeting with a high level of approval.

An encouraging letter recently sent from Prime Minister Paul Martin to Dr. David Hik, head of the International Polar Year secretariat at the University of Alberta, shows the federal government is giving this proposal serious consideration.

Hik said Martin is “very interested.”

“It’s a big task to create a new department, so it’s not the kind of thing that happens every day,” Hik said in an interview from Edmonton.

For years, disgruntled researchers, bureaucrats and politicians have criticized Canada’s lack of support for northern science and for the North in general.

At the same time, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami has been pushing for the creation of an Inuit Secretariat that would unite federal programs concerned with Inuit. Prime Minister Martin announced plans to create this secretariat within the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs in April.

The proposal for a new department isn’t a formal government initiative yet — and an official who deals with circumpolar affairs in Ottawa felt this wasn’t likely to happen or the Throne Speech would have mentioned it.

But supporters hope the PMO will see this as the way to make a splash during the polar year.

And they’re buoyed by the positive response to their call for Canada to take on a “leadership role in circumpolar north initiatives,” by increasing economic growth, promoting sustainable development, protecting sovereignty and supporting science and social development.

The proposal for “securing a northern advantage” wants Ottawa to create:

a Northern strategy that deals with the political, economic and scientific issues;
a portfolio and a department for a minister of northern and circumpolar affairs who would serve as a liaison between the territories and Ottawa, encourage economic development, support northern science and research and promote “Canada’s place in the world as a northern nation and a member of the circumpolar North;” and,
a Canadian Northern Research Service that would coordinate programs for northern science and research, such as the Polar Continental Shelf Project, and include a new Canadian polar institute or research centre.
The proposal could form part of Canada’s overall program during the International Polar Year in 2007-08, which is the first polar year since 1957.

International polar years are intended to highlight polar research and, in the past, have kickstarted new expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic.

In September, the deputy prime minister announced the establishment of Canada’s IPY secretariat, with a research budget expected to top $1 billion and involve 100 countries.

The seeming progress towards a new circumpolar affairs department is encouraging to Dr. John England, a long-time High Arctic researcher [see “Island stories”].

“It’s always like you’re pushing this rock and as soon as you get distracted or have to scratch your ear or think it’s secure, it just rolls all over you and down the hill and you start all over again,” England said when he was in Iqaluit recently. “For the first time, the rock is at the top of the hill.”

England has been lobbying for changes that would, at a minimum, put the federal government’s northern programs under one roof.

“We need something also at a federal level that really integrates what’s there. Even if they’re meager, let’s at least put them together,” England said. “This is not news to Paul Martin’s ears. This is now the most viable option — how can it not be attractive?”