Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee, for inviting us here today.
ITK is a national organization. It represents some 55,000 Inuit in Canada. Its member organizations are the four regional Inuit organizations in Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, Nunavut, and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. Together these four regions form Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland in Canada.
We were invited to address the topic of resource development in the north. We have a couple of preliminary points to make on that topic.
The first is that we will speak to resource development in the Arctic, not the north itself but the Arctic. Discussions about the north can mean many things in Canada, but regrettably, and notwithstanding ITK efforts, often leave out the Inuit Arctic regions of northern Quebec and Nunatsiavut as well. I just point that out.
The second preliminary point is that resource development should conventionally be understood to include renewable as well as non-renewable resources. Traditional Inuit culture is a hunting culture, and Inuit look to such things as commercial fishing and sports hunting, as well as the maintenance of traditional wildlife activities, to help build up a growing and diversified economy.
Having said that, we suspect the committee's main interest at the moment is in relation to non-renewable resource development. For much of the history of Inuit within Confederation, the Arctic has been largely out of sight and out of mind. That has changed. There are many indications that the Arctic will have an increasingly large part of international resource development attention.
That prospect is seen in the hundreds of millions of dollars now being spent on mineral exploration in the Canadian Arctic. It is seen in such proposals as the Mary River iron ore project, complete with a railway and new port on Baffin Island. It is seen in the estimates of the United States Geological Survey that the Arctic is likely to hold a significant portion of the world's hydrocarbon reserves, both oil and gas. And it is seen in the speculation that advances in technology, receding ice conditions, and established and expanding trading patterns will promote much higher levels of commercial shipping in Arctic waters.
These kinds of changes are shaping the political and economic environment, but there are also other changes shaping that environment. Our land claims agreements with the crown and other power-sharing political achievements have opened a new chapter. These large regional modern treaties began with the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in 1975 and continued until the Labrador Inuit agreement in 2005. They form a continuous chain across the Canadian Arctic from the Alaskan border to the Labrador coast.
For Inuit, the modern treaty-making process is virtually complete, and common-law Inuit rights have now been codified, largely if not exhaustively, into the black-letter law of treaties. These treaties are all protected by section 35 of the 1982 Constitution Act. They have interpretive primacy over any conflicting federal, provincial, and territorial laws.
Together, these treaties make Inuit the largest non-crown land owners in Canada by a considerable distance. Much of this land has rich mineral potential. These property rights and benefits work alongside a restructured jurisdictional world. The treaties, directly and indirectly, have given rise to the creation of the Nunavut territory, with a strong Inuit majority of citizens. They also form the basis of new and enhanced regional and municipal government structures and powers in other Inuit regions outside of Nunavut. Some of these are still emerging.
The treaties have created new, more coherent regulatory machinery for the management of lands, waters, wildlife, and for the review of development project proposals. Appointments to joint resource management boards are made both by senior governments and by representative Inuit organizations.
The various proprietary and jurisdictional features of the treaties are complementary. They work together to deliver a decisively rebalanced distribution of power between Inuit and the crown, and, by extension, between the Inuit residents of Inuit Nunangat and Canadians living in southern Canada. They guarantee a strong, if not exclusive, role for Inuit in the assessment of development proposals.
These new agreements and arrangements do not give Inuit an unqualified veto on most forms or occasions of resource development. They do, however, create a kind of big-ticket tripwire with a very clear message attached. What is that message? That message is that proponents of major development projects in the Inuit homeland should actively seek Inuit partners, and in all cases they must turn their minds to how their proposals can deliver maximum benefits to Inuit communities and households as well as to their shareholders.
The old days of Inuit being passive observers to such fundamental decisions are gone. No approach to resource exploration development in the Arctic will be successful unless Inuit are full partners and draw direct and substantial benefits. This last message was forcefully made and upheld by the Nunavut Court of Justice in a successful application in the summer of 2010 by the Qikiqtani Inuit Association for an injunction to halt seismic mapping authorized by the Canadian government in Lancaster Sound.
Inuit have, with reluctance but determination, brought litigation in other circumstances when Inuit rights have been fundamentally ignored. Inuit put great stock in the value of candour and transparency in building a more secure and more just world. For that reason, Inuit leaders from around the Inuit circumpolar world released a declaration in May 2011 setting out fundamental Inuit principles and expectations with respect to Arctic development. That declaration, entitled “A Circumpolar Inuit Declaration on Resource Development Principles in Inuit Nunaat”, can be found at the ITK website and the Inuit circumpolar website. We have a copy here as well for people to view, in particular the declaration that was struck back in May. ITK recommends that all the members give the declaration a careful and close review.
We would like to close our presentation by suggesting that Parliament adopt a number of very clear priorities in relation to Arctic resource development.
Number one, construct policies and make decisions in the Arctic, both in the international and domestic spheres, on the basis of a strong, honourable, and mutually respectful and beneficial partnership with Inuit.
Number two, apply partnerships by implementing Inuit land claims agreements fairly and constructively. There is a serious problem in that regard at the moment.
Number three, move quickly to bring about a mix of federal laws, policies, and agreements that will ensure that Inuit and Arctic governments receive first priority and a generous share of public sector revenues generated by resource development projects. Among other things, this means early conclusion and implementation of devolution agreements for both the NWT and Nunavut.
Number four, respond expressly and positively to “A Circumpolar Inuit Declaration on Resource Development Principles in Inuit Nunaat” and its earlier companion declaration on Arctic sovereignty.
Number five, give full federal support to the new national Inuit education strategy, and invest, invest, and invest again in Inuit education and training. Improved levels of Inuit educational achievement and training are the biggest key to overcoming the glaring mix of social and economic problems that are plaguing, and in far too many cases crippling, Inuit communities and households.
Number six, and finally, temper enthusiasm for the economic benefits of resource development with climate change policies that are substantive and ambitious and that contribute to international confidence and solidarity. Special efforts must be made to address climate adaptation measures in the Arctic right now.
Thank you very much for your time and attention.