WHITEHORSE – With even Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl admitting there was nothing new in the Conservative’s latest Northern Strategy re-announcement, Larry Bagnell, Liberal Critic for Arctic Issues and Northern Development cautioned Canadians not to be fooled by more Arctic promises still not kept.
“Stephen Harper made a grand list of promises to northerners to get their votes but he’s never apologized for breaking them,” said Mr. Bagnell. “Northerners are tired of being used for photo-ops by a do-little government when they see few signs of progress around them.”
The Arctic promises that the government has yet to make progress on include:
- Breaking their 2006 election promise to build three armed icebreakers by cancelling two of them and failing to deliver on the remaining one.
- No progress on much needed plans to build new fixed-wing search-and-rescue aircraft for Canada, jeopardizing the safety of Canadians and our military while failing to live up to international obligations to work together on Arctic search and rescue.
· No progress on a deep water dock facility, other than to change its planned location from Iqaluit to Nanisivik.
- Failing to establish new reserve units specific to the north; instead, their home stations were announced to be in the south in New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, and Winnipeg.
· Terminating the procurement process for new ice-strengthened naval resupply ships.
· No new coast guard patrol vessels have been built after the government cancelled their own procurement process.
· Failing to increase Canadian Ranger numbers from 4,100 to 5,000.
“It’s not just that we can’t trust the Conservatives to keep their promises to the north,” said Mr. Bagnell. “They’ve got no vision on the issues that matter to northerners, and are letting us down across the board.”
In addition to breaking its Arctic promises, the government has let the north down by:
- Blocking international efforts to reduce greenhouse cases, which affect the people and economy of Canada’s north more dramatically than anywhere else in the world.
- Ceasing to fund the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Studies, which funded hundreds of researchers doing studies related to the north, including the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory in Nunavut, Canada’s northernmost research centre.
- Making no substantial progress over two Conservative governments in moving forward the two major northern Canadian Arctic Gas Pipelines: the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline and the Alaska Highway Pipeline.
- Failing to allocate one additional cent for enforcing the expanded area covered by Pierre Trudeau’s Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act
- Stalling effective implementation of the Nunavut Land Claim and holding up revised, more appropriate, long term funding for the Yukon Land Claim and Self-Governance agreements.
- Eliminating the position of Northern Ambassador and leaving positions on Canada’s Polar Commission vacant for far too long.
“For all their rhetoric, under the Conservatives, Canada has fallen in its level of prestige and leadership amongst northern nations,” concluded Mr. Bagnell. “I’m the first to applaud any new initiatives for the north, but what northerners really need is a government that they can trust to actually follow through and implement its promises to make progress on the issues that concern us the most.”
