IQALUIT
Nunavummiut chimed in on Canada's new defence policy last month when Nunavut Senator Dennis Patterson hosted a round table discussion in Iqaluit before making a formal submission to a Defence Policy review on July 29.

Dennis Patterson hosted a roundtable in Iqaluit. - NNSL file photo

"Inuit are an important voice in all Canadian issues and I wanted to ensure that their input on Arctic security and sovereignty was given special attention," Patterson stated in a news release.

This is the largest defence policy review in 20 years, with cross-country roundtable meetings and online contributions wrapping up last month. The Department of National Defence stated it received more than 20,200 submissions to the online consultation portal and more than 4,700 contributions to the virtual discussion forum. The new policy is due in the spring.

The review focuses on three main areas -- security, the role of the Canadian Armed Forces in addressing threats, and the resources to get it all done.

"The strategic security environment in which the Canadian Armed Forces operates has changed significantly," stated Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan in a news release.

Nowhere is that clearer than in Nunavut, where Patterson's roundtable discussion centered on the role of the Arctic in sovereignty and security.

"Nunavut has an important voice that needs to be heard," Patterson stated in a news release, adding that Operation Nunalivut, the annual sovereignty operation that has been conducted in Nunavut since 2007, not only helped train the Armed Forces for operations in a harsh environment but also helped to "assert Canada's sovereignty over the North."

That sovereignty is going a little soft around the edges as climate change impacts the reality of the Arctic.

"Climate change is opening up the Arctic at an alarming rate," stated Patterson.

There has been increased traffic through the Northwest Passage, which has increasingly become open to shipping over recent years. In fact, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the Northwest Territories found that since the 1980s, the number of transits through the Passage has only increased about 4 per cent per year. By 2009-2013, that number of transits had increased by 20 to 30 per cent per year. A record number of 30 vessels made it through the passage in 2012.

"We know the snow is not what it used to be, the crystals are different. It is easier now to break the ice," Nunatsiavut president Johannes Lampe told the roundtable.

Concerns about Canadian security and sovereignty over the region were so high in 2009 that Parliament renamed the waters "Canadian Northwest Passage" in reaction to claims from the international community that the Northwest Passage is actually international waters.

"Using the strait baseline method connecting the farthest points of land surrounding the Arctic Archipelago, Canada defines the enclosed waters as internal over which 100 per cent of Canadian laws and standards apply," stated Patterson in a news release. "However, the international community does not recognize this claim and challenges to Canada's sovereignty over those waters persists."

Similar concerns were voiced at the roundtable around the airspace above, and the waters below routes through the Northwest Passage, and what that could mean for the right of transit to foreign vessels and aircraft.

Increased transit through the Passage would also mean increased risk of accidents, spills, as well as who would assume liability for the impact of these activities. Increased traffic also increases the potential for emergencies within the territory. The roundtable also focused on Arctic Search and Rescue (SAR) and an expansion to the role of the Rangers, including a potential new Search and Rescue asset to be established at Cambridge Bay to accommodate increased activity at the Canada High Arctic Research Station.

Lampe stated that increasing the Search and Rescue assets within the Arctic could provide more jobs for Nunavummiut, particularly Inuit. "People are flown in at more cost to do work . Inuit can be trained and given jobs to enhance their community," he told the roundtable. "It would give Inuit from all regions the opportunity to pass on that spirit . Inuit have traditionally been hunters, gatherers and fishers, but times are changing."

Patterson agrees. "The Canadian Rangers are in the Arctic and therefore do not need to be deployed at great costs," he stated in a news release."They know their environment and can detect changes that southern-based soldiers cannot identify. They have vested interest in making sure that activities conducted in the Arctic will not mortgage their future."

In his final recommendations, Patterson wants the government to consider contracting or sub-contracting locally based companies to provide support for Search and Rescue, that the Department of National Defence consider moving assets further North to improve response times, that DND work with Transport Canada to implement regulations to respond to increases in maritime traffic, and that money be made available to expand the Rangers.

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