Katie May
Northern News Services
Published Friday, June 6, 2008

YELLOWKNIFE - Six senators were in town Monday learning about the effects of climate change in the North on the first stop of a week-long trip across NWT and the Yukon.

Senator Sibbeston Senator Banks

Half of the 12-member Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources came from Ottawa on a $200,000 trip to the North, which included a visit to the legislative assembly and meet with the premier, mayor and territorial government departments.

The committee will write a public report on the Northern effects of global warming and present it to the federal government upon its return to aid politicians as they develop new environmental policies.

So far, everything they're hearing from groups such as Ecology North, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and the Department Fisheries and Oceans is in line with what they already know, said Alberta senator and committee chair Tommy Banks.

"It's reinforced our view that the environmental impact in the North is greater," he said.

Banks said members are learning a lot more than they would on Parliament Hill.

"The first thing we found out is that we get very different answers here than we do when we ask those questions in Ottawa," Banks said, adding the committee is studying specific facts from people who are directly affected by climate change in the North. "We know rather a lot about the South - it's really that we need to understand what the implications are of those pieces of legislation in the North."

NWT Senator Nick Sibbeston said melting permafrost will eventually change the whole landscape of the North and affect all kinds of infrastructure.

He said the senate has a "good reputation" for conducting in-depth studies and the report will make a few recommendations about how the government should deal with climate change.

"The federal government really needs to be aware and plan for the effects," said Sibbeston, who is from Fort Simpson.

"In many ways the North is becoming more important on the national scene."

The committee was scheduled to be in Norman Wells on Tuesday, Inuvik on Wednesday and Tuktoyaktuk and Whitehorse on Thursday and Friday.