This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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Addressing an international audience, Foreign Minister John Baird stressed that the top priority for Harper government is to ensure sovereignty of its Arctic strategy, while highlighting that Ottawa will continue to work with Canada’s neighbours in the North to establish boundaries. Mr. Baird was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, when he revealed that Ottawa also hopes to strengthen its regulations of the oil-and-gas and mining sectors, along with ocean shippers, in the region.
In his address to Davos forum on Thursday about the Arctic and climate change, he mentioned that “our first priority is asserting Canadian sovereignty. Obviously we want to assure the widest amount of Canadian sovereignty as possible.” He added that “the second priority is economic development,” and explained that “we’ve been terribly disappointed. We’ve seen a lot of economic development but little benefit has gone to indigenous people.”
Following that, he continued that the government’s third priority is environmental protection, as he stated that “one major spill in the Arctic will close the industry for one generation, two generations, three generations.” Mr. Baird repeated his government’s decision to create protected areas and suggested there may be more sanctuaries established “in the most pristine parts of the Arctic.” Meanwhile, several participants in the audience also suggested that Arctic nations shall perform their duty in trying to protect the region by reducing their own carbon emissions because it is the major cause of rapid melting in the Far North.
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