National Defence committee  Thank you for that question. The simple answer is work with us and talk to us. We have people who have a lot of expertise. For instance, in the Nunavut government they have a department that specializes in Inuit traditional knowledge. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, ITK, is also setting up an Inuit knowledge centre where we can provide expertise on Arctic and Inuit issues.

National Defence committee  Yes, that's absolutely correct. We don't need to set up new structures. We have structures in place. We have regional research organizations. We work with ArcticNet in terms of research on climate change.

National Defence committee  ArcticNet do wonderful work on the hard sciences, but we feel their social science agenda is weak and we're trying to build it right now. We're going to have another meeting next week. But it is weak on that side of it, so we continue to try to build it. But we do have research agencies in each of the northern regions that can provide a lot of information right now.

National Defence committee  Well, sir, I guess I'm in a good position to answer that question--

National Defence committee  --since I was the first ambassador. I was there for 10 years. What I found was that it was extremely useful to have a strong senior focal point in the government. I know that Minister Cannon has said he is the person responsible, but I found that on a day-to-day basis working within the department, and also with other countries because we're a member of the Arctic Council, it was always very important to have a focal point so that people could come and talk to you about the issues.

National Defence committee  Part of the establishment of the Northern Economic Development Agency, which is part of the Arctic strategy, is based on the renewal of some programs that existed in the past that were getting to the end of their agreements. So there has been a renewal of some of those programs, which are very useful to some of our economic development that goes on in the north.

National Defence committee  I think, sir, it depends on what is being built. In terms of the small harbour development, there may be some opportunities for some local employment. It depends on the training that has been achieved by the individuals. We're concerned about the research station that's going to be built in the Arctic.

National Defence committee  I'm going to defer the answer to John.

National Defence committee  Thank you very much. You are right that I said there were six recommendations. I felt I was going over my time, so I didn't go into my sixth recommendation. But I actually brought it into our discussion, and it's the one where we might explore a more productive relationship by possibly creating this joint Inuit-federal government Northwest Passage authority.

National Defence committee  I would say mental health and education.

National Defence committee  Thank you for that. Education is the key component of that, and we are trying to set up an education system that will embrace our culture and language, where we will use our mother tongue as a teaching language, and our history and our culture will be integrated into our education system.

National Defence committee  I'll let John deal with the defence side. When I was talking about this proposal for a joint Inuit-federal government authority that would be proactive, I think those are some of the issues that a joint committee would address. I think environmental issues are part of that. If there is a shipping accident or an oil spill, there has to be some kind of regime set up.

National Defence committee  That's a fair statement. In fact, that's what I was saying when I did my cross-Canada tour.

National Defence committee  That's a very important question. We have just embarked on a national process to improve Inuit education across the Canadian Arctic, and I'm the chair of the process. What we're going to do is look at how well we've done in education, where some of the failures have been, where the successes are.

National Defence committee  Thank you for that question. Sovereignty has impacted our people for many years. I don't know if you know this, but in the early 1950s our people from Nunavik, from northern Quebec, which is where I come from, were relocated into the High Arctic. The government, maybe not this present government, but the federal government has acknowledged that yes, Inuit played an integral role in the assertion of sovereignty.