I have four. Oil spill prevention in addition to oil spill preparedness and response—that's number one.
Number two would be the short-lived climate forcers. I've already mentioned black carbon and Arctic haze. I think we could make real progress there in two years with strong Canadian leadership.
Number three, I mentioned a regional fisheries organization for the central Arctic Ocean. The U.S. is ready. Russia is ready. Canada has a huge opportunity to have a diplomatic victory that we could call our own and contribute to that issue using our experience.
The fourth issue, and this is going to be controversial, is that I think we should push for the admission of both the European Union and China as permanent observers at the Arctic Council—not members, not voting members, not members that can be at closed meetings, but permanent observers. The reason I say this is that any international organization, any international forum, is only as important as the people in the room. We want the Arctic Council to be the centre of Arctic diplomacy, Arctic governance. It is a compliment to us that the European Union and China want to be there.
Additional to that, there are some issues here that can't be dealt with in the absence of cooperation from those major players. If we want to deal with black carbon, we need to have China in the room. If we want to deal with regional fisheries management, we need to have the European Union in the room.
Now, there are indigenous groups that are hostile to this suggestion, and they have reasons for that, including the European Union's ban on the importation of seal products. That's an opportunity for diplomacy, to actually say to the European Union, “We want you in the room for all these good reasons, but you have to help us here. How are you going to compensate the Inuit of Canada for the impact upon their economies as a result of your policy on the seal hunt?” Instead of yelling at them and litigating against them, here's the opportunity. They want in on the Arctic Council. They're causing problems for some of our citizens; let's work it out.
Across all these Arctic issues, the age-old mantra that you need to talk is centrally applicable. If there's one thing that perhaps we haven't been doing enough of—not just in the last six or seven years, but in the last couple of decades with regard to Arctic policy—it's that we haven't been talking enough to our neighbours.