Foreign Affairs committee  I think one of the main problems is that the Arctic Council, generally, is a very well-kept secret, and certainly the fact that Canada has been working on our agenda for the Arctic chairship has been very quiet. Perhaps we need to tell people that we are actually working on this, that we are actually doing consultations.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll start with the second point. My comment vis-à-vis the U.S. was that for some reason the common perception is that the U.S. is our biggest challenge in the Arctic, despite the fact that Canada and the U.S. defend North America jointly. We seem to think that U.S. assistance, participation, ends at the treeline.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. Whitney and I are not that far apart. What I'm saying by reset is that we need to change the language to be more reflective of what's actually going on, rather than using the sort of jingoistic vocabulary that we've been using. On the question of development, I would say that the best way for the northern residents to take advantage of development opportunities are things like having equal access to services, having infrastructure, and having access to mental health care professionals—the same things that southern Canadians have, which isn't the case right now.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. There are a couple of comments. First of all, the Arctic Council cannot make binding agreements. The one agreement that we have, a search and rescue agreement, is binding on the eight member states, but it's not binding on the Arctic Council. It was the forum in which it was negotiated.

Foreign Affairs committee  The Arctic Council, as you know, is a continuation of the Arctic environmental protection strategy. Now that we've been a part of the Arctic Council for well over 10 years, going on 20 years, there are many agenda items on the Arctic Council that sort of roll over from chairship to chairship, so there's not a lot of room to include new agenda items because it's limited to environmental protection and sustainable development.

Foreign Affairs committee  Sustainable development is one of the raisons d'être of the Arctic Council, so I don't think Russia is at all opposed to that. Sustainable development is like cultural awareness. It's like the health of northern inhabitants. It's like selling artwork and the like. There are lots of different aspects of sustainable development.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. It's an honour to be able to speak to you today. I heard only the final comments of Dr. Lackenbauer, so I apologize if there's perhaps repetition in our comments. I want to start with an anecdote of a public meeting that I attended last night about the Arctic—from this, I think it's symptomatic of two criticisms of Canada's current foreign policy that I would like to raise—and end off with a possible solution.