The Arctic policy of Canada includes both the foreign policy of Canada in regard to the Arctic region and Canada's domestic policy towards its Arctic territories. This includes the devolution of powers to the territories. Canada's Arctic policy includes the plans and provisions of these regional governments. It encompasses the exercise of sovereignty, social and economic development, the protection of the environment, and the improving and devolving of governance.
Canada, along with the 7 other Arctic nations, is a member of the Arctic Council. On August 23, 2012, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq would serve as chair of the Arctic Council when Canada assumed the Chairmanship from Sweden in May 2013.
Along with its mainland in the upper regions of North America, Canada claims sovereignty over the related continental shelf and the Arctic Archipelago. It considers the waters between the islands of the Archipelago to be Canadian Internal Waters. The United States among others considers those to be international waters.
Canada has more Arctic land mass than any other country but one of the smallest Arctic populations. Canada's Arctic land is included within the administrative regions of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon, although geographically and in some cases legally, parts of Newfoundland and Labrador and Northern Quebec are included as well. As of 2011, approximately 107,265 Canadians live in the Arctic.
History
Government interest in the North began with the English explorations of Frobisher and Davis in the 1500s and the 1670 Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) charter. The HBC charter gave the company title to Rupert's Land, the watershed of Hudson Bay. In 1821, the rest of the present-day Northwest Territories and Nunavut south of the Arctic coast was added to the charter. Then, in 1870, the Hudson's Bay Company transferred title to its lands to Canada with its purchase of Rupert's Land. Thus, the new dominion acquired legal sovereignty over all of what is now northern Canada except for the Arctic islands. This northern mainland sovereignty has never been questioned although there have been challenges to Canada's Arctic sovereignty in the past.
In 1880 the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland transferred to Canada the rest of its possessions in the Arctic, including "all Islands adjacent to any such Territories" whether discovered by British or foreigners, or not yet discovered.
Further historical information related to Canadian Arctic policy can be found in the sections which follow.
Geography
Definition of Arctic
The term "Arctic" varies in its usage. It can be defined as north of the Arctic Circle (66° 33'N). Alternatively, it can be defined as the region where the average temperature for the warmest month (July) is below ; the northernmost tree line roughly follows the isotherm at the boundary of this region. Socially and politically, the Arctic region includes the northern territories of the eight Arctic states, although by natural science definitions much of this territory is considered subarctic.
Canadian geographer Louis-Edmond Hamelin developed the nordicity index, having ten natural and human components:
latitude
summer heat
annual cold
types of ice
total precipitation
natural vegetation cover
accessibility by means other than air
air service
population
degree of economic activity
Using these components, he calculated regional values whereby he subdivided Canada into Near North, Middle North, Far North and Extreme North.
Population
A large part of Canada is in the Arctic region. Administratively this is split between the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon. About 107,000 Canadians live in the Arctic. This compares with the other countries' Arctic regions as follows:
Russia – 2,000,000
USA – 731,449 (includes entire population of Alaska, most which is below the Arctic Circle) Arctic Norway – 470,757 Iceland – 321,857 Sweden – 250,000 Finland – 184,000 Canada – 107,265 (includes entire population of Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, much of which is below the Arctic Circle) Denmark – 106,079 (Greenland and Faroe Islands)
Note: The statistic given for Iceland refers to its entire population. However, Iceland is almost entirely sub-Arctic, as are the Faroe Islands.
The Inuit
The Inuit are Aboriginal peoples originating in the Canadian Arctic and other polar nations. The word Inuit means "people" in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit.