Liberals are working today on Parliament Hill by hosting a roundtable that will examine ways of improving the lives of Arctic Peoples, particularly in light of the Harper government’s litany of broken promises regarding the North.
“Stephen Harper made a grand list of promises to Northerners to get their votes but, as with many of his promises, he has continued to disappoint the people of the North,” said Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. “That’s why Liberals are working to develop an Arctic Peoples Strategy that seeks to provide real solutions to the challenges Northerners face.”
Today’s forum will feature a range of expertise on issues that affect the North, including land claims, poverty, Northern infrastructure, health care, restorative justice and the environment.
Hosting the afternoon is MP Larry Bagnell, Liberal Critic for Arctic Issues and Northern Development, who is hoping to use the forum as a visioning exercise for future Liberal Northern policy.
“For all their willingness to hold Arctic photo-ops, under the Conservatives, Canada has fallen in its level of prestige and leadership amongst Northern nations,” said 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.”
BACKGROUND
The Harper Conservatives’ failed record on the Arctic:
• They broke their 2006 election promise to build three armed icebreakers by cancelling two of them and failing to deliver on the remaining one;
• There has been 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;
• There is still no deep water dock facility – all they’ve done is change its planned location from Iqaluit to Nanisivik;
• They terminated 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; and
• They failed to increase Canadian Ranger numbers from 4,100 to 5,000.
In addition to breaking its Arctic promises, the government has let down Arctic Peoples by:
• Blocking international efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, which affect the people and economy of Canada’s North more dramatically than anywhere else in the world;
• Cutting funding the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, 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 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; and
• Eliminating the position of the Arctic Ambassador and leaving positions on Canada’s Polar Commission vacant for far too long.
