In Canada's northern backyard, the effects of global warming are as evident as anywhere on the planet.JONATHAN HAYWARD
The world's Inuit say they are tired of being left on the sidelines as petroleum and mining companies reap the benefits of resources being extracted from arctic lands.
Inuit leaders from Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia emerged from a two-day conference on resource development in Ottawa on Thursday to say they were finalizing a declaration that would express their expectations for future development in and around circumpolar regions.
"We have heard of the regulatory regimes developers must comply with in order to engage in major projects in our respective jurisdictions," Aqqaluk Lynge, the chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, told reporters. "Inuit want to inform these regulatory regimes and governments with a set of guidelines developed by Inuit in the circumpolar states."
Various communities of Inuit across Canada's north have moved to stop activities such as offshore oil drilling and uranium mining when that type of development has threatened the ecology or their way of life.
The message out of the conference was far more positive toward companies that are looking at the potential riches that lie beneath northern lands and waters.
Edward Itta, the Mayor of the North Slope Borough in Alaska, said he wants the world to know "that we are open for business."
But the Inuit want business to be on their terms. The declaration that they plan to present at a meeting of Arctic Council ministers in Greenland in May will set out a number of principles that they say must guide oil drilling and mining.
Although those principles will stress that environmental and social impacts must be properly assessed, the overarching demand is that the Inuit become the primary beneficiaries of any activities that exploit the resources on their land.
"When we talk about primary beneficiaries, we are talking about various aspects of resource development," said Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.
"One key aspect would be benefitting from the resources in terms of being able to receive money from development. But, in addition to that we want to make sure that these development issues will benefit our people in ways that will help them live in a cash economy."
That means providing the educational opportunities that will take people off welfare and out of poorly paid unskilled jobs and put them into the high-paying jobs in the petroleum and mining sectors, Ms. Simon said.
"There has been a lot of resource development in the Arctic," she said. "We have never benefitted in real terms, either in terms of the extraction itself or in terms of jobs."