Canada

Canada claims sovereignty over the second-largest Arctic coastline (Russia has the longest) yet is plagued by a lack of fiscal commitment to the region, exemplified by the country’s inability to follow through on a 1987 pledge to create a Polar Class 8 icebreaker. In the future, Canada should maintain a minimal surface presence in the Arctic region in order to assert sovereignty while forcing other nations to bear the cost of opening the Northwest Passage. Given Canada’s status as a Far North nation, the government should also encourage international scientific cooperation, particularly on warming of the Arctic, changing ecosystems, emissions of greenhouse gases from melting permafrost and these changes’ effects on indigenous people. Like the United States, Canada needs to make the Arctic an integral part of national policy rather than an afterthought. It should build and then seek to profit from new northern ports, including building rail lines to ship goods into the now inaccessible Canadian north. Canada will not be able to stop Arctic development, so it must seek to control and participate in the region’s growth.