I do think there is a dispute. I'm a little bit sympathetic to a government that says there isn't a dispute, because historically you never want to let a stronger opponent know that you're actually scared of them. When you acknowledge a dispute it sends them that signal. I appreciate that.
As a non-government academic, I can say quite frankly from where I sit that there is clearly a dispute, and it is about to be escalated. The U.S. Department of Commerce is going to enforce a moratorium on all Arctic fishing, once the Secretary of Commerce signs off on it. This includes the Canadian zone. They're saying they have the sovereign right to stop all fishing. It's a good idea, to be quite frank, and we don't understand what's happening, but the idea that the Americans are doing it unilaterally is problematic.
What we should be doing is entering into some form of a joint management scheme with both the Americans and the various relevant aboriginal groups, because we have a land claims issue due to the 1984 western Inuvialuit land claims agreement that gives certain fishing and marine cultivation rights to the Inuvialuit. There should be some element where we agree to disagree on the actual formal drawing of the borders, but engage in best practices for the harvesting of marine mammals and fishing, perhaps enforcing the precautionary principle until we understand this new fish stock.
We should also engage in a joint management scheme for the development of oil and gas. Let's be blunt here: the development companies are all the same. It doesn't matter if it's BP or Exxon Mobile. The ones that are on our side of the Beaufort are the same on their side. Through free trade we have a common market for the sale of oil and gas once it reaches North American soil.
In my mind, the ingredients of a successful joint management scheme to mitigate this from becoming a much more serious dispute are there. We need to have the political will to do so. If the Indonesians and the Australians, who went in when Indonesia was collapsing, were able to enter into a joint management scheme for the North Timor Sea, Canada and the United States should be able to do it.
This will not ultimately solve it. We will still have the disagreement about which interpretation of the 1825 treaty is correct. But if we handle the fish issue, the oil and gas issue, and the land claims issue, that will resolve where the points of the crisis will come forward. I think we should do it sooner rather than later.