Foreign Affairs committee  They are full participants, yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  Do you mean at the Arctic Council? Yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  They participate on other issues. Certainly a lot of the preparatory work we do on Arctic Council issues includes the permanent participants. As my colleague mentioned, Minister Aglukkaq was recently in all three territories. She met with the territorial governments and also th

Foreign Affairs committee  I think we would argue that the Arctic Council is an international organization. In terms of treaty-making capacity, that responsibility lies with the sovereign states, not with the organization itself. I think, really, the value-added of the council has been that it works on a

Foreign Affairs committee  I will do my best. Thank you. Yes, exactly. That's really in terms of all of the things that Mr. Kessel has been talking about: basic application of international law across the Arctic region and mutual recognition of boundaries, of regulatory regimes, and so on, so it's very mu

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, indeed, I would say this is very much a whole-of-government issue. The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is largely focused on the international dimension, whether that is in the negotiation of various agreements that Mr. Kessel has spoken about or whethe

Foreign Affairs committee  We're the lead on the international dimension, but not on northern issues writ large by any means.

Foreign Affairs committee  I've already mentioned, I think, that we have the permanent participants at the table on the Arctic Council. There are six aboriginal or indigenous groups represented there, several of which are based in Canada. Some of them, of course, straddle several international jurisdiction

Foreign Affairs committee  Perhaps just to clarify, the Government of Canada, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, does support the Canadian-based permanent participants with some financial resources to help them participate in the work of the council. This I think has been ongoing since the creation

Foreign Affairs committee  Indeed, I think the issue of economic and social development was very much something emphasized by the Prime Minister during his tour of the north this summer. While I think there are a number of different opportunities coming forward in the north, certainly, as you said, I think

Foreign Affairs committee  May I defer to my colleague Mr. Kessel on this one, Mr. Chairman?

Foreign Affairs committee  It's a very important question. Indeed, I would say that in many respects everything we do in the north is driven by the realization that there are rapid changes taking place in the north as a result of climate change. Much of the work we have been doing in the Arctic Council, an

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you once again for having invited us to address the committee this morning and for giving us the opportunity to outline some of the elements of Canada's Arctic foreign policy, which was launched in August 2010. As you know, the north is