Harper announces plan to expand energy, mineral mapping of Arctic

Opinion

Barry Artiste

Canada’s drive to claim sovereignty of our Arctic takes a new turn in beating the Russians claim over our territory.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=749670

Harper announces plan to expand energy, mineral mapping of Arctic

Reuters Published: Tuesday, August 26, 2008

OTTAWA — Canada plans to boost its spending on mapping Arctic energy and mineral resources, in order to encourage development and defend Canadian sovereignty in the far North.

The government will spend $100-million over five years, building on a plan earlier this year to spend $34-million over two years, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Tuesday as he prepared to kick off a three-day trip to the region.

“We know from a century of northern resource exploration that there is gas in the Beaufort (Sea), oil in the eastern Arctic, and gold in the Yukon.

There are diamonds in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, and countless other precious resources buried under the sea, ice and tundra,” Mr. Harper said.

Ottawa says its Arctic policy is growing in importance in light of increased activity in the region by Russia and other countries. “Use it or lose it, is the first principle of Arctic sovereignty,” Mr. Harper told reporters.

“To develop the North we must know the North.

To protect the North, we must control the North. And to accomplish all our goals for the North, we must be in the North,” he said.