Harper hot for Arctic treasure

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has laid bare his government’s vision of the Arctic as...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has laid bare his government’s vision of the Arctic as a resource treasure house to be exploited by Canada, announcing a $100-million fund to kick-start detailed geo-mapping searches for minerals and oil and gas deposits.The announcement - made yesterday amid rampant election speculation and just ahead of a three-day visit to northern Canada by Harper and senior members of his cabinet - also makes clear that the Conservative government believes a grasp for Arctic riches will boost the party’s fortunes in a possible campaign, despite inevitable clashes with environmentalists and potential disputes with other polar nations over seabed rights and shipping routes.Significantly, the proposed exploitation of oil and gas resources in the Arctic has emerged as a key issue in the U.S. presidential election campaign, with critics there warning that the potential energy bounty isn’t worth the ecological cost, especially at a time when climate change - which is widely viewed as being driven by carbon fuel emissions - is melting the Arctic ice cap and otherwise transforming the polar environment.Results of a recent poll conducted for Canwest News Service showed Canadians were split over whether extracting resources from the Arctic is a sound idea.But yesterday’s announcement suggests the Conservatives see the opening of the Arctic as an economic opportunity as much as an environmental crisis."We know from over a century of northern resource exploration that there is gas in the Beaufort, oil in the eastern Arctic and gold in the Yukon.’ There are diamonds in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, and countless other precious resources buried under the ice, sea and tundra," Harper pointed out."But what we’ve found so far is merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Managed properly, Canada’s share of this incredible endowment will fuel the prosperity of our country for generations. And geo-mapping will pave the way for the resource development of the future. He added: "As I’ve said before, ’use it or lose it’ is the first principle of sovereignty in the Arctic.’’To develop the North, we must know the North. To protect the North, we must control the North. And to accomplish all our goals for the North, we must be in the North.But in a sign of how the issue is likely to be framed in election debates; Harper’s announcement quickly drew fire from Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, who said in Toronto that environmental issues in the Arctic deserve priority attention over economic development."I think it is very important for the world to give very clear rules and laws about the Arctic before it becomes a jungle - a jungle without trees, but a jungle," Dion said. "It’s what Canada should be speaking about very clearly. We need to protect the Arctic for the world. Anything we will do there should be very careful about this very fragile environment. Alarms about the Harper announcement also were raised by the NDP, which boasts one of the country’s leading polar experts - University of British Columbia professor Michael Byers - as a candidate in Vancouver.