Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Jan 29/99) - Polar melt, territorial division and the creation of an International Arctic Council have all helped the rest of the world pay more attention to the Arctic.

That includes Ottawa.

As such, Canada's ambassador for circumpolar affairs, Mary Simon, is set to visit Inuvik Feb. 2 and 3 as part of a Northern shuttle run geared to have her touch base in about a dozen communities to refine foreign policy objectives already written but not etched in stone.

Council is set to have an open meeting Feb. 2 at 3 p.m. at the town office where anyone with an interest is free to stop by, according to Mayor George Roach.

At a council meeting Jan. 25, Roach outlined some of his beefs for the federal government, including trans-boundary pollution and problems with trade in muskox. And since discussion will help hone domestic as well as foreign policies, he took aim at Nav Canada.

"Nav Canada fees make millions of dollars from travelling over our land. Why can't we have a piece of those millions?" he asked council rhetorically, as an example of a question he may pose to Simon, who originally hails from Kangirsualujuak in Northern Quebec and is a former Inuit Tapirisat board member.

Though a large consultation paper has been described by Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy as a "work in progress," IRC chair Nellie Cournoyea, who will meet Simon Feb. 3, says she will stick to the agenda already outlined -- and topping that list is sustainable development.

"When you're in discussions at this level it's very difficult to talk about any specific project," Cournoyea says.

"The terms that these discussions take are very broad and we have to make sure that these broad discussions are premised on the needs of the people. They don't go into this project or that project."

Still, Cournoyea says she may discuss the Inuvialuit's unfulfilled desire to see a change to the Tuktut Nogait park's southwestern boundary and the "inability of the government to have any goodwill on that issue."

But she says she has had previous discussions with Simon on that issue and found her to be supportive of the boundary revision to allow sustainable development in the form of mining activity.

"The Inuvialuit have been involved in sustainable development way before Canada even began discussing it. It has always been in our land claim and I wouldn't be surprised if we were the people who first began using the term."

Another problem Cournoyea says may need to be addressed is the Marine Mammals Protection Act, which restricts sale of seals and seal products.