{"id":585,"date":"2014-12-03T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/?p=585"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:57:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T19:57:21","slug":"inuit-views-presented-at-the-economists-canada-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/press-releases\/inuit-views-presented-at-the-economists-canada-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Inuit Views Presented At The Economist\u2019s Canada Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\r\n\r\nTORONTO \u2013 3 December 2014 \u2013 Duane Smith of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) was invited by The Economist to present the views of Inuit at its premier Canadian event held here today, called The Canada Summit: Confronting the Big Questions.\r\n\r\nThe event\u2019s main panellists and speakers included Alberta\u2019sPremier Jim Prentice and Bank of Canada Governor Stephen F. Poloz, as well as many bankers, economists, and chief executives who addressed issues such as global banking, energy, and investing in ideas.\r\n\r\nMr. Smith was joined on a panel called \u201cCanada and the Arctic Council\u201d by former Toronto mayor and current CEO of WWF Canada, David Miller, and Tony Guthrie, Chief executive of De Beers Canada.\r\n\r\nSpeaking as both ICC Canada President, and Vice Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, Mr. Smith shared Inuit insights based on questions posed by moderator and Canada correspondent for The Economist, Madelaine Drohan. In contrast to Mr. Guthrie\u2019s\r\n\r\nposition that the Arctic was the \u201clast global frontier\u201d, Mr. Smith suggested that the Arctic was betterdescribed as a vibrant place full of life and, most notably, \u201ca place where Inuit live in an area covering 40% of Canada\u2019s land mass\u201d.\r\n\r\nBoth Mr. Smith and David Miller said that De Beers now exemplified many characteristics of a goodcorporate citizen in the Arctic but \u201cthey had to learn the hard way\u201d, added the ICC Canada president.\r\n\r\nIn response to a call for tougher rules for Arctic development by the WWF Canada head, and a call for fewer rules by the De Beers CEO, Duane Smith emphasized the importance of strictly following existingrules and constitutional arrangements that already exist. \u201cWe need to make sure the rules are not watered down, as some resource companies are asking for, but more importantly we need to make sure the existing arrangements, such as co-management are maintained and strengthened\u201d, he added.\r\n\r\nDavid Miller praised Canada for having the foresight in 1996, when the Arctic Council was founded, to agree to having international indigenous peoples organizations play a direct and meaningful role alongside states in the Arctic Council, of which ICC is one of six.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\"page1image1979102560\"\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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\r\n\r\nIn response to a question on Arctic sovereignty, the ICC Canada President reminded the audience that sovereignty for Inuit included dimensions well beyond the buying of icebreakers, such as food security and social well-being.\r\n\r\nMr. Smith said he saw the need back in 2011 for Inuit leaders from Greenland, Alaska, Russia, andCanada to forge a collective path on these matters and organized an Inuit Leaders\u2019 Summit on resourcedevelopment. He concluded by inviting those who want to understand \u201cour own Inuit rules regarding development\u201d to consult the ensuing 2011 A Circumpolar Declaration on Resource Development Principles in Inuit Nunaat, where \u201cit is clear we want development partnerships, but on our terms and at the right pace\u201d.\r\n\r\nFor more information:\r\n\r\nNatasha Latreille\r\n\r\nnlatreille@inuitcircumpolar.com\r\n\r\n613-563-2642\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","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":[28,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-28","category-press-releases"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585","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=585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987515346,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions\/987515346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}