Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for this opportunity to discuss Arctic sovereignty with all committee members in attendance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the invitation to present the views of Inuit on the subject of Arctic sovereignty.
The Inuit Circumpolar Council (Canada) President, Duane Smith, who will be here later this week, is in his home in Inuvik at the moment. He has asked me to express his regrets that he is unable to appear before this committee. He has requested that I speak on his behalf. I'm sure he'd be open to any questions later on by mail, e-mail, or otherwise.
I'm going to present to you a little bit of a different twist on what some members here believe sovereignty is. I want to talk about more of an international dimension of sovereignty and how the Government of Canada, especially this committee, should be aware of how the Inuit--who don't only live in Canada--can be a good partner, building relationships with Canada and furthering its political goals.
As you may know, the Inuit Circumpolar Council was founded back in the late 1970s when Inuit from four countries came together to talk about issues very much related to sovereignty, at least to what Inuit perceived the notion of sovereignty to be. It was in part because of oil companies in Alaska, at that time, moving in without regard for any kind of Inuit sovereignty in the northern part of Alaska. As you know, later on, in the Mackenzie Valley and other parts of Canada, similar things happened. A lot has changed in the last 30 or 35 years, and for the better, as you know, Mr. Chair.
Your invitation to speak here today could not have been more timely, as the Inuit Circumpolar Council issued a circumpolar Inuit declaration on sovereignty in the Arctic only two weeks ago in northern Norway. I have it here. If the clerk could tell me if it was translated into French, perhaps I could even distribute it as well. You can also find it on the ICC website.
This circumpolar declaration on sovereignty in the Arctic, Mr. Chair, came about for several reasons. One, as the previous witness just said, there's an increasing focus on the Arctic by Canadians and also by people abroad, and by states, by academics, by industry, and, as we heard today, by the space industry. As you also know, Mr. Chair, there was a very important meeting, which the--