Canada North Pole claims
Canada North Pole claims
The federal government hurried along the purchase of $7 million in icebreaker upgrades to collect data to support the federal government’s North Pole claim.
Federal bureaucrats were left scrambling to find more data to support the Conservative government’s controversial claim to the North Pole last December, according to internal documents.
The documents reveal the federal government rushed through a $7-million icebreaker upgrade earlier this year to gather more data to back the Conservatives’ claims.
After Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird indicated to the United Nations in December that the North Pole would be included in Canada’s Arctic claim, bureaucrats from Natural Resources Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans were forced to “prepare scenarios for additional data collection” in the North.
In a January briefing note to former natural resources minister Joe Oliver, staff identified two options: purchasing data directly from Denmark, which also has ambitions for the Arctic, or installing new sensor equipment on a 45-year old icebreaker, the Louis S. St-Laurent.
Ottawa eventually opted for the $7-million upgrade for the St-Laurent, which sailed for Arctic waters on Saturday. A government news release marking its departure from Newfoundland boasted the ship was carrying “state-of-the-art” sonar technology.
The upgrades required a “very aggressive timetable” on the part of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the briefing note states.
“DFO will have to commit to purchasing about $7 million in equipment by early February 2014; otherwise, the window to install it during the (previously scheduled) April-May dry dock would be missed, and the surveying would need to be postponed a year,” the document states. “If a 2014 voyage to the Arctic is to occur, it is essential that a decision on the appropriate scenario be made soon.”
The Conservatives have made Arctic sovereignty a key component of their party’s identity. Harper has made an annual trip to the North every year since becoming prime minister in 2006. The government has also devoted considerable resources to solving the mystery of the Franklin Expedition, the disastrous 1848 expedition that disappeared trying to discover the Northwest Passage.
The Star requested an interview with DFO and Natural Resources for this story. In a written statement, the departments said while Ottawa initially considered purchasing mapping data from Denmark, “the data were not for sale.”
The departments also wrote that previous mapping data were obtained through joint projects with the United States Coast Guard.
At issue is the Lomonosov Ridge, which runs from Ellesmere Island and across the North Pole. Canada, Denmark and Russia have all made partial claims of the ridge and the seabed surrounding it.
John Higginbotham, a former senior diplomat and fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, said he can understand why Canada wants its own data to make its claim to the ridge.
“Several people have the data, probably the American and Russian submarine forces have the data, probably the Danes have the data, but I can see the reasons why we would want to assure ourselves of the data by getting it ourselves,” Higginbotham said in an interview.
While he sees value in the St-Laurent’s current mission, Higginbotham said there’s likely domestic politics being played around Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s push for more Arctic territory.
“There’s a little bit of flag waving here, but it’s better late than never and it is certainly something that we should be doing,” he said.
But Michael Byers, an international law expert who has written extensively on Arctic sovereignty issues, said Canadian scientists have already mapped portions on the Lomonosov ridge. In an interview Tuesday, Byers questioned the value of another mapping mission to support Canada’s claims.
“There’s no legal benefit available from this that we didn’t already have, or we couldn’t have had (much more easily) and (for) much less cost. No legal benefit whatsoever,” Byers said. “The only conclusion is the government was looking for some non-legal benefit, which I’m postulating would be political rather than legal.”
In a prepared statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the St-Laurent’s mission will complement the data Ottawa currently has on the Lomonosov Ridge. Another mapping mission has already been slated for 2015.
“As demonstrated by these planned surveys, our government is committing the resources necessary to ensure that Canada secures international recognition of the full extent of its continental shelf, including the North Pole,” wrote departmental spokesman John Babcock in an email.