Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 29/01) - The message being sent to Ottawa and Northerners from the latest meeting between military brass and security officials is that the North is prepared for whatever may come its way.

Department heads from several federal agencies, including RCMP, Coast Guard, Immigration, CSIS gathered Oct. 24-25 at Canadian Forces Northern Area Headquarters in Yellowknife for the bi-annual Arctic Security Interdepartmental Working Group meeting.

Committee chair and base commander Col. Kevin McLeod told department heads that the meeting confirmed Northern security forces were "capable" and "needed" in the event of a crisis.

Some major themes brought before the committee involved upgrading the North's air disaster plan -- particularly if a plane were to crash in a remote area, tightening security along Canada's Northern perimeter, integrating operations among the various security agencies, and contemplating the effects of climate change on the Northwest Passage.

Security measures were certainly on the minds of reporters attending the meeting, in the wake of last month's U.S. terrorist attacks and ongoing anthrax scare campaign.

But McLeod said plans for beefing up Canada's military presence in the North had already been in the works for more than a year.

"This is routine," said McLeod, adding that "nothing has changed" after the terrorist attacks.

Col. McLeod was tight-lipped about what kind of security plans are currently in place, stating only that it "wouldn't be appropriate to talk about it on the open air."

He did say, however, more navy patrols will be heading for Iqaluit, and 120 soldiers will be shipped to Resolute Bay in the near future.

Dr. Rob Huebert, a political scientist from the University of Calgary, has been attending the interdepartmental meetings since they began in 1999.

He said a growing issue for Canada's North will be the United States' plan for installing a national missile defence shield to protect North America from rogue states.

Dr. Huebert said Canada's commitment to the plan likely depends on how much the terrorist threat intensifies over the next couple of years.

Also at issue, Huebert said, were the ramifications of the widening passage through the Arctic Ocean because of global warming, warning that Canada could have an international debate on its hand if a viable shipping route were to open.

Canada has faced pressure from the U.S. and other European states over the last few years to declare the potential waterway as an international shipping route.

"It's not that they're (the U.S.) trying to piss us off, it's about what kind of precedent this would set," said Huebert, referring to a potential domino effect from other nations bordering international shipping routes if Canada was to insist on its sovereignty of the High Arctic. "It's an issue of who creates the rules?"