U.S. ambassador talks business, security on first trip to Nunavut
David Cohen’s 4-day stay included attending Nunavut Day festivities
David Cohen, the United States’ ambassador to Canada, made his first trip to Nunavut this week. Cohen spoke with Nunatsiaq News about his time in the territory, Arctic defence and the opportunity for the U.S. to facilitate business growth in the territory. (Photo by David Lochead)
The United States’ ambassador to Canada made his first trip to Iqaluit this week, talking to government and business representatives and seeing the city.
“Everyone has been welcoming, warm and friendly,” said David Cohen, who arrived Sunday and left Wednesday. “It’s been an incredible stay from that perspective.”
Confirmed as U.S. ambassador to Canada in November 2021, Cohen spent nearly 20 years as an executive and senior adviser with Comcast Corp., an American media conglomerate.
He spoke with Nunatsiaq News on Wednesday about his time in Iqaluit and his priorities as ambassador, which include northern business growth and Arctic security.
Cohen said that while he was in the city he was able to engage in one of his embassy’s priorities of helping small and medium-sized businesses to grow.
He met with local owners to discuss opportunities and barriers they face and held a roundtable discussion with the Baffin Regional Chamber of Commerce and representatives from the accounting firm Lester Landau and Qikiqtaaluk Corp.
“One of the things we’re trying to do [in our mission] is to identify opportunities for small businesses and do what we can to reduce that barrier,” Cohen said.
One possibility, he said, could be for small businesses to partner with larger ones to extract critical minerals in Nunavut.
Asked how to encourage environmental conservation while mining natural resources, Cohen acknowledged “it is a matter of balance.”
He said people are right to worry about exploitation of critical minerals on the land.
“But there is a way to take advantage of the huge economic opportunity that exists for the Arctic, for Nunavut, in the critical minerals space while respecting the land and respecting conservation,” he said.
That includes consulting with Inuit, he said.
“Our philosophy is that we want to engage Indigenous Peoples in this decision-making at the outset,” Cohen said.
Arctic security was also on the table during his stay in Iqaluit.
Cohen credited Canada for its announcement last year that it will spend more than $38 billion over 20 years to modernize its strategy for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or Norad, a military partnership between the U.S. and Canada.
He noted Canada’s timeline to have a new over-the-horizon radar system in place has been moved up to 2028. Over-the-horizon radar can detect incoming missiles or targets from a long distance.
“There’s a clear strategic imperative that Canada has agreed to, to make sure that Norad is adequately resourced to provide the defence awareness and defence capability that both our countries need in the Arctic,” he said.
In a joint statement Wednesday, Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok and Deputy Premier Pamela Gross said Cohen’s visit “will foster increased collaboration in the Arctic.
“There is a strong bond between our two regions, and we have shared interests in areas such as climate change, sovereignty and security, transportation, critical minerals and the protection of our shared waters.”
Cohen also said he enjoyed being in Iqaluit for Nunavut Day on Sunday, talking with locals taking part in the festivities.
He said he spent time with Gross and they discussed the importance of preserving Inuit culture.
“I’m getting a lot of exposure to culture, directly and indirectly,” Cohen said of his visit.
No! Keep the Americans away from our resources. Their country is imploding under racist Republicans.
Its ether the Yanks or the Chinese !!
Any less than our country is imploding under identity-politics focused Liberals?
Given how we don’t really have the increasingly violent tensions and events like their January 6 stuff happening here, among others… yeah, America is definitely imploding more than Canada and that’s rather clear.
.
Trudeau is a bit of a dope and not my preferred PM, or even from my preferred party, but lets not pretend that we’re falling apart at the seams in the same ways or at the same rate as the USA are…
When the United States sneezes, Canada catches a cold…
I agree we aren’t falling apart in the same way (or, apparent way) the US is, but it would be unwise to miss the effects of US influence not only on our economics and politics, but on our perceptions around social issues too. We are inextricably linked and in no small measure share a similar destiny, whether we think we deserve to or not.
Oh, I know we are very similar and very linked. I am not missing any effects on how their issues infect our own, believe me. I am pretty worried about how our two countries are so similar given what things have been like to the South in the last decade or two, especially with it seemingly getting more intense the last few years. They are our canary in the coalmine, and they don’t look good…
.
But just because we have a kinda clownish PM who mostly gets people angry by being “too woke” or mediocre or whatever, doesn’t mean Canada is doing worse than the USA, where masses of people charge their Capitol and people die, including a former US Air Force member getting shot in the head while trying to break through barricades. Or the competition for their leaders is between seemingly-senile old people whose main differences seem to mostly be the colour of their ties.
.
The person I was replying to who was trying to act like we have it as bad or even worse than the USA does is being very disingenuous and unserious by trying to pretend “identity-politics Liberals” are comparable to the massive issues that have been unfolding in the USA the last few years.
.
Even the COVID Trucker stuff in Ottawa is incomparable to the American problems so far, and we all know things aren’t improving any time soon, so there’s likely more nonsense to come down in the USA…
It is funny how some in Nunavut do not want to have anything to do with the Americans.
By any objective measure, Americans have done a way better job at occupying and managing their Arctic (Alaska) compared to Nunavut.
Be it regional political and economic autonomy, defense/sovereignty effort, GDP per capita, life expectancy, violent crime rate, wellness index score, homeownership, health care cost, you name it, Alaska as part of the USA has Nunavut as part of Canada just plain beat.
Shockingly, the US even has a significantly higher Environmental Performance Index score than Canada, while Alaska has way healthier caribou herds than Nunavut even with all the development over there.
Nunavummiut that think the US is worse than here are deluding themselves.
The US is politically/culturally divided and Americans are definitely pro development. Somehow, they manage both better than us. Given all that, what the heck is our problem in not being better than them?
Plus, didn’t America help create these communities? Weren’t most of the runways and stuff done by the American Military during the cold war? My community has a 50′ USAF tanker truck sitting in the dump with the lettering still visible on the side of it.
“Our philosophy is that we want to engage Indigenous Peoples in this decision-making at the outset,” … since when? The US has one of the worst track records on the plant for engaging with and including indigenous peoples in its decision-making!