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Executive Summary

The ongoing transformation of the Arctic is as startling as it is unprecedented. Global warming is having a dramatic impact on the Arctic environment, resulting in warmer temperatures, melting ice and the opening of previously ice-covered waterways. Consequently, the Arctic is becoming increasingly accessible to a number
of different actors who are descending upon the Arctic with varied, and not mutually beneficial, agendas.

As an Arctic nation Canada is not immune to the consequences of the transformation taking place in the Arctic. Various actors come to the Arctic as its increasing accessibility encourages both exploitation and development of this important region. Control of the Arctic will yield significant benefit to the country wielding this control. As challenges to Canada’s command of its Arctic region have been made in the past, it is not inconceivable that disputes to Canada’s control of its Arctic will be made in the future.

Numerous Arctic states now assert their Arctic interests. In addition to Canada, the United States, Russia, Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway, all seek to bolster their various Arctic claims. Even non-Arctic states such as China, Japan and South Korea have become very active in the region. Their claims vary from resource exploitation and development, to division of the Arctic seabed, right of transit in the Northwest Passage and interests in the Arctic. As the various actors advance their claims, the potential exists for a serious challenge to emerge for Canada’s sovereignty and security in its Arctic.

Given the transformation of the Arctic, and the consequent challenges to Canadian Arctic sovereignty, the protection of Canadian Arctic sovereignty is essential to the provision of Canadian Arctic security, and vice versa. Sovereignty and security are not mutually exclusive concepts; they are interdependent. The core of Canadian Arctic sovereignty is the federal government’s ability to control what happens in the Canadian Arctic, while Arctic security is the Canadian government’s ability to respond to all forms of threats that arise in its Arctic region. The government cannot control activity that takes place in its Arctic region in the absence of any ability to enforce against threats that arise and, similarly, the government cannot respond to threats in the region if it does not have control in the region.

While previous Canadian governments recognized the importance of Canadian Arctic security and sovereignty, they did little to ensure that it would be achieved. Successive Canadian administrations were unwilling to allocate the financial resources necessary to acquire and maintain assets that would bolster Canada’s sovereignty and security in the region. As a result of Canada’s perceived diminished capacity to protect its sovereignty and security in the region, other nations have openly sought to advance their Arctic claims, often at the expense of Canada’s position.

In order to enforce and ensure its sovereignty and security in the Canadian Arctic, our government must act now to take the following steps:

• First, Canada must improve its decision-making process on Arctic affairs. It needs to create a Cabinet committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, which is focused solely on the Arctic. Only by ensuring that the Prime Minister is continuously engaged in Arctic issues will attention to the region be maintained.
• Secondly, we must improve Canadian surveillance and enforcement capability. Only the ability to know who is in our Arctic region and what they are doing there will allow us to control those actors and their activities. Outside actors will be unable to operate in the Canadian Arctic undetected or unrestricted. In order to achieve this capability, the Canadian government will have to provide the financial resources necessary to acquire, build and maintain the infrastructure and equipment.
• Finally, Canada must cooperate better with its Arctic neighbours. Cooperation with other Arctic states, particularly the United States and Russia, will be essential to develop an international Arctic framework that will serve as a guideline for rules of engagement.

Canada must be prepared to deal with challenges to its Arctic sovereignty and security now, in a concise and effective manner. To do so later, or to do so now in some half measure, will ensure that Canadian Arctic sovereignty and security is merely a theory and never a reality.