Thank you.
Indeed that was what I was getting to at the very beginning, but my seven minutes were up. There are a number of legal challenges, such as the control of Canada's sovereign rights over the Arctic Ocean basin, the extended continental shelf, the maritime boundary, the continental shelf boundary in the Beaufort Sea and the dispute over Hans Island. I mentioned very briefly in my opening remarks that these other legal disputes—if you prefer, we can use the term “legal matters” to avoid any hostile connotations—were governed by specific rules.
In the case of the extended continental shelf, you are quite right. As a party to the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, Canada must make a submission to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf regarding the boundaries of the extended continental shelf, as Norway and Russia have done. The United States are working on it, even though they are not yet party to the treaty.
In my view, that is what the Ilulissat Declaration was about. The rules of the game are there, and everyone is playing by those rules. The process will be followed. I think, however, that it may take a long time. We need to be patient because the commission cannot rule on requests that are the subject of a dispute. For instance, it could not issue a ruling on the zone between Russia and Norway in the Barents Sea, which is contested by both countries. The commission did what it could, but the disputes remain.