Foreign Affairs Committee on March 7th, 2013

[Geoff Green]

They're great questions. Certainly the formative years are that time where we can really define our youth and their perspectives and their futures, which is why I think all of us can point to things that happened to us in those years that led us to where we are today.

Polar school definitely would be international. Probably the best model out there would be like a United World College, or Pearson College, but with a focus and emphasis on the Arctic— funded, scholarship-based, 50 to 100 students. There's actually a property on Meech Lake that belongs to the NCC that we've looked at as a potential location, O'Brien House, the old government conference centre, which is sitting empty now.

In terms of the youth, absolutely, the youth go back, they help to educate their peers. None of our youth has gotten to the age yet where they've been able to actually shape curriculum. The oldest of our alumni are now in their mid-twenties to late-twenties; they're getting there for sure. As you know, curriculum is provincial and territorial and quite complex, but they're moving up the chain quickly and they're going to be in leadership positions pretty soon. We also take teachers on our expeditions and they play roles back in their provinces as well.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

How about members of Parliament?

[Geoff Green]

Well, you're all invited.

We have had some retired members of Parliament come, but we love to bring leaders and mentors like all of you. I think a big part of the experience is eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner for two or three weeks with people in leadership positions.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

I'd be very interested to see what kinds of curriculum opportunities the students have because I think there is a real deficit of information out there. If my daughter's experience in trying to pull together curriculum for her classroom is any indication, it has been a real challenge. So I'd be interested to see what your business plan looks like on that.

Is there any way this could be integrated with your concept of polar house? Is that more a museum style or is polar house something that is separate and apart from the polar school? What does that look like?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

I'll let you finish the answer, but that's all the time we have.

[Geoff Green]

It's separate. The concept is not as a museum. It would complement the other national museums in Ottawa. It's more of a gathering centre for all stakeholders and an educational centre about the north, but also a centre to showcase what our government is doing in the north, and much more—but not a museum.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

I'm going to finish up with you, Mr. Eyking, for six minutes, please.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, guests, for coming.

When you look at the big picture here, you know how the Europeans went west to Atlantic Canada, and then everybody was pushing them further west for expansionism, and you can see how that went.

All of a sudden, it's all eyes are on the north, right? You alluded to Antarctica, but maybe because we're in the northern hemisphere, of course, it seems like the biggest change is happening up there. The Arctic is a bit of a barometer of the environment of our planet. It's also going to open up all these great economic opportunities. One would say, did we do it right in the last couple of centuries, and how are we going to do it in this upcoming century if the Arctic is the so-called last frontier?

I'm more curious about international protocol and how we go down that route. The recent article in The Economist talked about how the species are going to change. Fish are going to move from one area to another area; birds, wildlife, everything is going to change if the graph continues the way it goes.

I think we're going to be chairing this Arctic Council, and the Americans are going to follow suit. On the Obama administration, my sense from him in his State of the Union address is they want to put a bit of a stamp on being environmentalists. That all being said, what should we push to make sure we take into consideration indigenous people and everything I talked about? How do we really enforce something in this Arctic Council that will set the table, which could be key for the upcoming century on how the Arctic is going to be handled overall?

[Prof. Greg Poelzer]

It has to be with northerners, and you have to have the capacity for northerners to shape how the north should develop.

Let me come back to the previous member. In terms of capacity, everything from high school completion to vocational training is critically important, and university is part of it, of course. Those kinds of skills and research should be based in the north, driven by northerners, for northerners, and be appropriate for northern communities, economies, and so on. That's where the largest investment needs to be shaped, rather than from the south. I think that's a critical thing Canada needs to do. In the post-Second World War period we haven't done nearly enough, especially compared to our seven circumpolar neighbours. I think that's a critical difference Canada needs to—

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Just on that, and your being a westerner, you know how we did it. We just plopped that railroad across western Canada, and there wasn't much consideration for the aboriginal people. What's going to safeguard us from just pushing these people aside?

[Prof. Greg Poelzer]

Well, there are a couple of things. One is capacity. You take, for example, in terms of an Inuit education strategy, they're already speaking.... I was just at a conference a couple of weeks ago, chaired by Mary Simon, about an Inuit education strategy. If we look at our northerners, that's the kind of investment that in this case is capacity building but also in governance, another area. Those are the tools that can ensure that northerners are shaping their own futures. I think that's the critical direction.

I'll give you an example from a provincial north. Northern British Columbia, among the 10 provinces, had the worst post-secondary participation rate 20 years ago. When they built the University of Northern British Columbia, 70% of the students who graduated from there stayed in the north. Instead of the rotating belt of people going up for six months or two years, you had northerners occupying for the long term, having the institutional capacity to shape the direction of northern British Columbia. You see that in terms of the transportation corridor that's evolving and so on.

It's the same thing in other parts of the provincial north. In the territorial north, they need to be done as well. I would think—

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

I have to interject because I'd like Geoff to speak a little bit about what happened in Russia when their aboriginal people—or their indigenous people—were pushed aside. With Russia having one of the greatest opportunities in the fishing industry in the north, where their population's being pushed aside, what can we learn from that?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Geoff, that's all the time we have, but go ahead. I'll let you just give us a quick answer.

[Geoff Green]

I think we can learn that's not the way to go. The way the Russians have pushed out RAIPON is not a stellar example of the way to deal with your northern aboriginal people. The Russian model is probably not one for us to look at.

To answer your other question, I agree with our other witness. Engagement of our northern peoples and northern organizations is key. They have a lot of experience. They've lived in the Arctic for millennia. There's a lot of capacity, but there needs to be more.

Legally, with treaties, they need to be equal players at the table, so that's one.

I think common sense is something we should always fall back on. We can learn a lot from what's happened in the past with development around the world, including in the Arctic. There's been development in the Arctic for decades, which most people forget. There have been mines, many of them very successful.

Lastly—sorry, Chair—I would say there's a lot of expertise out there, including within the Arctic Council. The sustainable development working group of the Arctic Council has done great work, so we're not starting from scratch here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

To our witnesses, Greg Poelzer on the phone from Saskatoon, thank you for joining us today, sir.

[Prof. Greg Poelzer]

Thank you kindly.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

To Geoff Green, thank you, and thank you for working around our bells and votes. We had to make the meeting a little bit shorter, but thanks for getting on the record.

With that, the meeting is adjourned.