Madam Chair, I will be splitting my time tonight with the member for Calgary Nose Hill.
It is about priorities, and Arctic sovereignty is a priority for our party. We talked about a recent buildup of Russian presence in eastern Europe tonight, as was mentioned by my colleagues from Wellington—Halton Hills and Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, but we have also seen a rise in Russian ambitions in the Arctic, as Marcus Kolga mentioned in a recent article. He wrote:
Over the past few weeks, the Russian president’s ambitions have converged in the Arctic, challenging Canadian and allied interests and dropping the threat of conflict with the Kremlin directly on our northern shores. Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, recently warned Canada and other Western allies that all the resources beneath the melting ice in the Arctic Sea belong to the Russian government.
Does the minister recognize our claims to the Arctic and the Arctic border and refute the Russian claims?