Right.
There is a northern strategy, I should say right away and acknowledge that it's good as far as it goes. But it is basically a domestic or, shall I say, an internal northern Canadian strategy. It isn't very international. It doesn't have the strong pan-Arctic dimension that I think we should have. That is a strategy that would see us have an idea of our own, and then go for it for the future of the Arctic as a region. We tend to think of our own piece of the pie and not to go too far beyond that yet. I think, though, we'll have to take a position sooner or later and develop a strategy.
What should go in there? There are all kinds of things that should go in. There is the environment, of course. There is adaptation to climate change. There is shipping throughout the region. We could talk about the Northwest Passage and what might or might not happen there, but there is the possibility that as the ice recedes still further for there to be use of the Russian northern sea route, or there could well be shipping right across the pole from the Bering Strait through eastern Greenland to Europe or the North Atlantic. This would be done by specially dedicated ships. There are fisheries to manage and think about. As the waters warm and the ice recedes, new species are appearing in the Arctic Ocean and related waters. Those will have to be governed. There are effects of all these things upon indigenous people and other residents of the north. So there is quite a large agenda.
We could talk about this, but there is not a military or a national defence agenda. It is rather more on a stewardship or constabulary side of things, including, by the way, search and rescue. I think there will be an increasing need, which will be recognized by Canada and the other eight, to set up an emergency response capability. I'm sure that to do this it will require the support of the Canadian armed forces.
There is a whole set of things that need doing, and I think the word that sums it up is “stewardship”. You could work it out in some detail, but there is something else. Before we could actually begin to implement a strategy, I believe we have to create the will to cooperate in the region. The will is in short supply in the Arctic. It's in short supply because, like Canada, the other Arctic countries, but especially the Russians, are preoccupied with sovereignty and with possession. They are not yet looking outward as much as they might. And there is a need to build an outwardness in this country, but also in the other countries as well. The need here varies.
I think, though, there are interesting parallels between the Russian debate about the Arctic and the debate in Canada. Again, there are identity dimensions as the Russians approach the Arctic and as we do, which in the Russian case leads them to abrasive and threatening statements and maybe actions and moves as well, even though fundamentally the Russian position is one of support for the rule of law. This, I think, is perhaps somewhat the way Russians may read us in Canada, but there is a strategy in there somewhere.
I could go further, but--