Jack Danylchuk
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 05/05) - It will take more than sovereignty patrols to persuade the world that the Arctic belongs to Canada, according to military and political analysts.

David Bercuson, executive director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, said Canada's case "is so much weaker if we don't have an ongoing, continuous and effective presence.

"You have to have some sort of a permanent facility and presence there," Bercuson said.

The Arctic capabilities that Canada developed after the Second World War have greatly deteriorated in the past 40 years, he said.

"We lost interest in maintaining a serious Arctic capability, Bercuson said.

"We don't have one. To get one back is possible, and there are some signs. But it's not going to be easy, or quick."

What is needed, Bercuson said, "is a good, small capability that operates well and can be deployed whenever necessary to do what needs doing up there - rescue people, or enforce the Arctic Waters Pollution Act - a symbolic presence of our sovereignty."

University of Calgary political scientist David Taras said Canadians would probably be shocked by the Armed Forces' diminished capability to operate in the extreme environment of the Arctic.

"I think there is a sense that the military can still do the job, that it has the basics," Taras said.

"But the people who know are often horrified to the lengths we have to go to maintain very old equipment."

"There is a big disconnect between the new ambition to maintain sovereignty and the capacity of the military to actually do that," Taras said.

Military strategists are proposing satellite and drone surveillance of remote regions, "but ultimately if you can't impose a continuous presence then claims to sovereignty are eroded."