{"id":1375,"date":"2006-08-11T14:11:44","date_gmt":"2006-08-11T18:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/?p=1375"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T19:56:15","slug":"icc-canada-applauds-arctic-sovereignty-assertion-by-the-prime-minister-and-calls-for-an-arctic-component-to-canadas-climate-change-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/press-releases\/icc-canada-applauds-arctic-sovereignty-assertion-by-the-prime-minister-and-calls-for-an-arctic-component-to-canadas-climate-change-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"ICC Canada Applauds Arctic Sovereignty Assertion by the Prime Minister and Calls for an Arctic Component to Canadas Climate Change Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<strong>Ottawa, August 11, 2006<\/strong>\r\n\r\nMr. Duane Smith, President of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) Canada today\r\napplauded the Prime Minister, visiting Iqaluit, for initiating Operation Lancaster, a\r\nmajor deployment of Canadas armed forces in the Canadian Eastern Arctic to bolster\r\nCanadas sovereignty over the Northwest Passage. He also applauded the Prime\r\nMinisters commitment to expand the Inuit RangersCanadas eyes and ears in the\r\nArctic.\r\n\r\nMr. Smith noted that climate change is opening the Northwest Passage, making it ever\r\nmore important for Canada to assert and affirm its Arctic sovereignty. The 2004 Arctic\r\nClimate Impact Assessment (ACIA), prepared by more than 300 scientists and Arctic\r\nIndigenous peoples, reported significant thinning and melting of sea ice and projected an\r\nice-free Arctic in summer in coming decades.\r\n\r\nThe Prime Minister recently characterized Canada as an emerging energy superpower\r\nenabled, in part, by increased exploration and development on the Arctic frontier.\r\nClimate change is easing shipping access to the Northwest Passage and the Arctic Ocean,\r\nand is promoting further exploration for oil, gas, and minerals in the North.\r\n\r\nMr. Smith said: The eight-nation Arctic Council, in which ICC and other Arctic\r\nIndigenous Peoples are permanent participants, is assessing the likely level of shipping\r\nin the Northwest Passage and throughout the Arctic in 2020 and 2050. The councils\r\nreport will be submitted to governments in November 2008 and will illustrate the nature\r\nand potential magnitude of the threat to Canadas Arctic sovereignty by foreign\r\nshipping. The Prime Ministers visit to Iqaluit is timely.\r\n\r\nThe Government of Canada is scheduled to release its made in Canada climate change\r\nplan this autumn. ICC called on the Prime Minister to link assertion of Canadas Arctic\r\nsovereignty with an Arctic and Inuit dimension to Canadas national climate change plan.\r\nAs well, ICC recommended that the Minister of Foreign Affairs announce the Arctic\r\ndimension to Canadas climate change plan and Canadas Arctic sovereignty strategy at\r\nthe meeting of the Arctic Council in Russia in late October, 2006.\r\n\r\nFor additional information contact:\r\nMr. Duane Smith 867-777-4201\r\n\r\nInuit Circumpolar Council\r\nCANADA OFFICE\r\n170 Laurier Avenue W., Suite 504\r\nOttawa, Ontario, Canada K1P 5V5\r\nTel: 613-563-2642 Fax: 613-565-3089\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/\">https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging<\/a>\r\nemail:\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:icc@inuitcircumpolar.com\">icc@inuitcircumpolar.com<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-37","category-press-releases"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987515283,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions\/987515283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}