ICC Canada Applauds Arctic Sovereignty Assertion by the Prime Minister and Calls for an Arctic Component to Canadas Climate Change Plan

Ottawa, August 11, 2006 Mr. Duane Smith, President of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) Canada today applauded the Prime Minister, visiting Iqaluit, for initiating Operation Lancaster, a major deployment of Canadas armed forces in the Canadian Eastern Arctic to bolster Canadas sovereignty over the Northwest Passage. He also applauded the Prime Ministers commitment to expand the Inuit RangersCanadas eyes and ears in the Arctic. Mr. Smith noted that climate change is opening the Northwest Passage, making it ever more important for Canada to assert and affirm its Arctic sovereignty. The 2004 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), prepared by more than 300 scientists and Arctic Indigenous peoples, reported significant thinning and melting of sea ice and projected an ice-free Arctic in summer in coming decades. The Prime Minister recently characterized Canada as an emerging energy superpower enabled, in part, by increased exploration and development on the Arctic frontier. Climate change is easing shipping access to the Northwest Passage and the Arctic Ocean, and is promoting further exploration for oil, gas, and minerals in the North. Mr. Smith said: The eight-nation Arctic Council, in which ICC and other Arctic Indigenous Peoples are permanent participants, is assessing the likely level of shipping in the Northwest Passage and throughout the Arctic in 2020 and 2050. The councils report will be submitted to governments in November 2008 and will illustrate the nature and potential magnitude of the threat to Canadas Arctic sovereignty by foreign shipping. The Prime Ministers visit to Iqaluit is timely. The Government of Canada is scheduled to release its made in Canada climate change plan this autumn. ICC called on the Prime Minister to link assertion of Canadas Arctic sovereignty with an Arctic and Inuit dimension to Canadas national climate change plan. As well, ICC recommended that the Minister of Foreign Affairs announce the Arctic dimension to Canadas climate change plan and Canadas Arctic sovereignty strategy at the meeting of the Arctic Council in Russia in late October, 2006. For additional information contact: Mr. Duane Smith 867-777-4201 Inuit Circumpolar Council CANADA OFFICE 170 Laurier Avenue W., Suite 504 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1P 5V5 Tel: 613-563-2642 Fax: 613-565-3089 https://www.inuitcircumpolar.com/staging email: icc@inuitcircumpolar.com