Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Aug 17/01) - Premier Stephen Kakfwi said a meeting with U.S. governors and officials earlier this week left him believing Americans couldn't care less about the North.
 Stephen Kakfwi |
Also in attendance was U.S. Secretary of Interior Gale Norton, whose department is ultimately responsible for overseeing the nation's parks and wildlife refuges.
"She was kind of bragging about the move to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development," said Kakfwi. "It was a funny situation."
The wildlife refuge, located on the northern Alaskan coast, has been attracting a swirl of controversy ever since U.S. President George W. Bush announced his desire to open it to drilling and exploration earlier this year.
It is home to approximately 130,000 caribou of the Porcupine herd, and is considered by environmentalists on of the last pristine wilderness areas left on Earth.
When Kakfwi pressed Norton last Monday to answer whether or not the U.S. government plans to open the refuge to further mineral exploration, and perhaps other nationally protected wilderness areas as well, he says she coolly replied, "the Alaskan situation is very unique."
"That's about as weak as it gets," said a perplexed Kakfwi.
"The Canadian government was very serious in protecting caribou calving grounds, but the chair of the agenda would not let me speak again."
Kakfwi said he spent the following day shut out from discussions with the U.S. governors, who were overwhelmingly in favour of opening the refuge to development.
Calls made by Yellowknifer to the U.S. Department of the Interior were not returned, neither were calls made to Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne.
"He's taking some much-needed vacation time and he likely won't be able to do an interview," said the governor's communications director, Mark Snider.
Kakfwi will return to the U.S. this October with Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Team Canada to hold trade and energy talks with their American counterparts.
