James Hrynyshyn
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 22/02) - It comes as no surprise that Operation Kigliqaqvik Ranger should encounter open leads on its way to Magnetic North. Open water is not usual for the High Arctic, even in April.

But it does evoke the challenges that climate change has brought to Canada's claim to the region.

The United States and Europe do not recognize Canada's sovereignty over Arctic waters. Until now, the debate has been academic, but interest is growing as the region warms and the summer ice melts.

A recently declassified report from the U.S Navy calls for increased resources in the Canadian Arctic in response to the increase in commercial and military traffic through the passage. "Scientific models consistently suggest that seasonal sea lanes through the formerly ice-locked Arctic may appear as soon as 2015," says the report.

Ottawa's position is that Canada's sovereignty would be "undiminished" in the even of a year-round Northwest Passage, and Operation Kigliqaqvik's main purpose is to reassert Canada's claim. Planners at the Department of National Defence, however, are interested in more sophisticated strategies.

Tests of new "over the horizon" monitors are planned for next year in Clyde River, says Lt. Col. Rory Kilburn, chief of staff for Canadian Forces Northern Area. High-frequency surface wave radar under development at the Defence Research Establishment in Ottawa is designed to spot ships hundreds of kilometres away.

"They are hoping to test the concept and make sure they can pick up contacts over towards the coast of Greenland," Kilburn says. If it works, stations will be built at each end of the Northwest Passage, possibly within a decade.

Also on DND's Northern wish list are underwater acoustic monitors, a new ship-tracking satellite and robotic surveillance airplanes.

Canada may have some breathing room, however, thanks to similar climate trends on the opposite side of the Arctic Ocean. "I would be looking for a passage to open in the summer by Russia first and not one by Canada," says climatologist Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria.