September
9, 2005
Russia key to Canadian Arctic defence
SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE
Canada welcomes cooperation with Russia to tackle global warming in the Arctic,
Defence Minister Bill Graham said last Friday during a four-day trip to Russia.
"In our view, the Arctic is changing rapidly because of global warming
and there will be a need for further collaboration," Graham told reporters
at a press conference with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Ivanov.
"Our navies could be looking at ways in which we would work on issues
as waters become more and more open to traffic," Graham said.
He said changes in the Arctic are "taking place I think at a surprising
and almost dangerous rate."
Russia and Canada have both claimed overlapping parts of the Arctic shelf,
while Norway, Denmark and the United States have expressed "reservations"
about Russia's claim.
Recently, Russia's Arctic fleet flagship Akademik Fyodorov became the world's
first transport vessel to reach the North Pole without an icebreaker's assistance.
On the way, the Akademic Fyodorov also studied Russia's continental shelf, which
Russian scientists said continues far into the Arctic Ocean.
September
9, 2005
Help UArctic, Canada
The federal, provincial and territorial governments need to commit money to
the University of the Arctic if Canadians are to live up to their international
obligations, said Greg Poelzer, the university's director of undergraduate studies,
who works out of the University of Saskatchewan.
"Each of the countries depending on the size of their northern populations
have been asked to contribute," Poelzer said at a recent meeting in Whitehorse,
Yukon. "Norway and Finland have been extremely good, going above and beyond
the call of duty. What we don't have from Canada, and we're at a critical stage
of the development process, is that multiyear sustained funding, so that we
can continue on."
The UArctic wants $2.5 million per year from Canada.
The UArctic website, www.uarctic.org, describes the university as an institution
without walls, based on a cooperative network of universities, colleges, and
other organizations "committed to higher education and research in the
North." Nunavut Arctic College is one of UArctic's member institutions.
September
9, 2005
Greenlanders demand election
Greenland's Home Rule coalition government is teetering after revelations that
several MLAs used public funds for personal pleasure.
In June, Jens Napaatooq from the leading Siumut Party resigned as minister
of housing after media reported he had racked up an expense account of over
400,000 Danish krøners ($80,000) from November 2004 to June, 2005.
Napaatooq used the money at nightclubs, eating out at expensive restaurants
in Denmark, and he even bought booze at a go-go dance bar in Copenhagen. In
an average day, he spent about 1,400 krøner ($325).
Now, an audit by Deloitte Touche, which was commissioned by Premier Hans Enoksen,
shows Napaatooq wasn't the only MLA to be freely spending public money. The
auditors' report says MLA Rasmus Frederiksen also spent more than 160,000 krøner
($35,000) from November to June on "frequent and expensive purchase of
alcohol, often at very late hours."
Fredikersen has since resigned.
The report has the opposition Atassut Party calling for an election and the
recovery of money from the MLAs.
"You can't use your public representation account to pay for amusements
with your friends and family," Augusta Salling, head of the Atassut Party,
told the Danish daily newspaper, Politiken.
The auditors' report also said four more MLAs could not account for all the
expense money they had claimed.
September
9, 2005
Curfew sends Reykjavik kids home to bed
SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE
This week, the curfew for children in Reykjavik, Iceland became two hours earlier
due to the decreasing amount of sunlight and the beginning of the new school
year.
According to the curfew, children under 12 cannot be out in public after 8
p.m. unless accompanied by their parents.
Teenagers 13 to 16 years of age cannot be out after 10 p.m. unless they are
on their way home from a certified school, athletic or youth function.
September
9, 2005
Greenland ice cap shrinks while leaders fiddle
Greenland's Ilulissat glacier, a United Nations heritage site, has shrunk by
over 10 kilometres in just a few years.
"We are witnesses to one of the most striking examples of climate change
in the Arctic," U.S. climate change expert Robert Corell said during a
recent helicopter flight over the glacier.
Corell said the lower extremity of the glacier "has receded by more than
10 kilometers in two or three years after having been relatively stable since
the 1960s."
Corell, a senior fellow with the American Meteorological Society in Washington
D.C. and chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, took 22 environment
ministers and other officials from around the world, who met recently in Ilulissat
for a conference on global warming, on a tour of the glacier.
"We can't find any more concrete example of Arctic warming, which is twice
as fast as in any other part of the world," Corell told Agences France
Presse.
Corell said the glacier shrank by seven kilometres in a 12-month period from
2002 to 2003.
Greenland's ice cap could melt within a few hundred years, raising the water
level of the world's oceans by six to seven metres, threatening more than 1.2
billion people who live within 30 kilometres of ocean shorelines.
September
9, 2005
Norway, Iceland best places to live
SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE
Norway tops a 2005 United Nations list ranking it as the best country in which
to live for the fifth year in a row, with Iceland as the runner-up.
Norway has led the world ranking since Canada fell from top spot in 2001.
The annual list ranks countries by an index combining wealth, education and
life expectancy.
Last year, Norway was followed by Sweden, Australia and Canada at the top,
while Sierra Leone was the last of 177 countries listed.
Norway's economy is set to expand by 3.75 per cent this year, interest rates
are at 2.0 percent, annual inflation is at 1.1 percent and unemployment is a
low 3.7 percent.
September
9, 2005
Walrus sausages for Chukotka
A sausage maker from Anchorage, Alaska is in Chukotka this week to help Yupik
walrus hunters preserve their meat.
Doug Drum of Indian Valley Meats plans to install a canning facility in Lorino,
a coastal village in Chukotka.
The canning project is sponsored in part by the Alaska-Chukotka Development
Program at the University of Alaska Anchorage with a grant from U.S. Agency
for International Development.
Canning will enable walrus hunters to process, preserve and distribute their
catch around the region. The product will have a shelf life of about 10 years.
September
9, 2005
Inuu, Inuit angry about fly-in mine workers
SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE
Inuu and Inuit leaders said they may disrupt the start of Inco's Voisey's Bay
nickel mine because of the mining company's travel benefits for workers.
The Voisey's Bay mine in Labrador is expected to produce 50,000 tonnes of nickel
a year. That would make it one of the world's biggest producers of nickel, which
is used in stainless steel.
Leaders of the Inuit and Innu recently accused Inco of a breach of trust because
it subsidizes travel costs of workers flown into the mine site from other parts
of Canada. Previously, workers had to pay most of their own way.
Inco says it needs to attract skilled employees to the site at a time when
qualified mining industry staff are difficult to find.
But Labrador community leaders are angry because they say the policy conflicts
with the spirit and intent of agreements signed by Inco to employ and train
local staff at the project.
"We did not initiate this change, but we will need to review our IBA (impact
benefit agreement) to assess the impacts," said Ben Michel, president of
the Innu Nation, in a press statement headlined "Labrador groups considering
action to stop operations at Voisey's Bay mine."
"We may also seek to have the mine mill project re-reviewed by the environmental
assessment agency as it is in fact a different project than what we had agreed
to," the release said.
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