Canada's Sovereignty over the Northwest Passage

There are many priceless resources such as oil and minerals in the Arctic and a potential shortcut for ships, which can greatly benefit a country's economy, because of this many countries from around the world are eyeing this place and brought back the once dormant topic of who owns the Arctic? In addition, with climate change the ice is melting more and more making the passage more open and easier to access the precious resources. Who owns the Northwest passage? Is it internal waters or is it international water? This has created political tension and potential conflict between Canada and world superpowers. Canada claims the passage is internal waters while others such as the United States claims it is international waters. With climate change becoming a larger and larger problem, what will Canada do and what will happen? Can Canada manage both of these issues at once?

This issue has be up for debate for a long time and disagreements have long been strung up and dealt with. The 1988 Arctic cooperation agreement allowed for them (Canada and the US) to agree to disagree over the ownership of the Northwest Passage. In short the treaty states that United States icebreakers are free to travel the passage if they asked for Canada's permission first, but as of late, climate change has melted more and more of the ice in the passage making the passage more traversable, allowing ships other than icebreakers to traverse it. The passage gives the country who owns it, a new trade route which could save up to 7000 km of distance (this would reduce travel time by up to 20 days) as well as bringing huge economical benefits in terms of transportation and trade relationships to the country that owns it. Furthermore it also gives the country that owns it an advantage in the fight over the Arctic as a whole which contains around 35 trillion dollars worth of oil, natural gas and minerals. All of theses benefits have caused disputes over the passage and continue to do so to this day.

We should care because this threatens Canada's sovereignty and thus our "ownership" over the Northwest Passage. This is important because of the economical benefits that the Northwest Passage could bring to Canada and thus would also affect all of Canada. In addition, there are serious environmental threats, such as more invasive species like Zebra Clams and oil spills, negatively impacting the fragile environment and ecosystem in the North. With the ice melting, the amount of ships that travel through this passage will one hundred percent increase. Eleven ships traveled in the passage in 1988, but in 2016, 47 ships did, according to the Canadian Coast Guard. This would increase the risks of expensive accidents such as oil spills which Canada would then have to clean up. This is not help by the fact that the Northwest Passage is one of the hardest places to send clean up crews and ships and thus be very expensive because of harsh climate and little reliable maps of the area. All the money used to pay for these expenses have to come from a somewhere and in this case the source are the taxes that citizens of Canada pay. So if nothing is done there will a probability of an increase in taxes and tensions between the government and the citizens.

From a Canadian perspective the Northwest Passage is internal waters and completely Canadian. From their point of view this fact is non-negotiable and thus giving the Canadian government full control over the laws and what happens int he area. In fact in 2009, the Canadian government even renamed the Northwest Passage to the Canadian Northwest Passage, just to highlight that the passage is Canadian. The Canadian government has declared that “All of the waters within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago are Canadian historic internal waters over which Canada exercises full sovereignty.” In addition this statement is also supported by Article 8 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS or United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). Furthermore the Inuits who have inhabited the northern parts of Canada for about 4,000 years, giving the Canadian government a historical claim over the passage. Despite this, many other countries including China, Russia and the US, have different views regarding the passage.

China is arguably the country which has been eyeing the Arctic and Northwest Passage for the longest. Interested in the benefits in terms of global shipping(or as China otherwise calls it, "a Polar Silk Road"), fishing stocks, energy security and other mineral resources, China has not spared a single cent in order to achieve this goal using their financial power to make up for their lack of territorial claims. As of 2017, China had spent the equivalent of 1.4 trillion US dollars for research and heavily invested in numerous Arctic oil companies. The countries near the Arctic see this as an attack of their sovereignty and claim over the Arctic although Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said "China will not interfere in the affairs that purely belong to the Arctic countries". Despite this China has sent the Snow Dragon( a Chinese icebreaker ) ,saying that it was a "scientific expedition" but they were gaining knowledge of how to navigate through the Northwest Passage for future Chinese ships.

Russia wants the estimated 35 trillion dollars worth of unused natural gas as well as oil within the Arctic (the Northwest passage is in Arctic). This country is the world leader in term of Arctic infrastructure development ever since the beginning of the 20th century with around $300 billion invested into projects in the Arctic. Russia has already started to drill for oil in the Arctic with two large oil companies Rosneft and Gazprom Neft and Rosneft alone would produce an estimated half a billion of oil. Russia has always worked towards economic and military dominance in the part of world where the resources there could benefit the country. In fact, Russia has already reopened and improved military bases and facilities in the North that originated from the Soviet Era, showing their military presence, but claiming it was for, "Necessary defense capability." These aggressive actions has lead to groups within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that are now pushing for an increase in Western military presence in the region. This could potentially start another situation similar to the Cold War.

The United States views the Northwest Passage as international waters and all ships (including military vessals) that are part of a country in the United Nations should have the right to use the passage, as it states in the law of the freedom of navigation ("The ships flying the flag of any sovereign state shall not suffer interference from other states, apart from the exceptions provided for in international law.") This case is similar to the events of the South China Sea where territorial disputes occurred and the United States and other countries, like France conducted freedom of navigation operations. They sailed as close as they can to the seven man made islands while not entering the Exclusive Economic Zone of China (EEZ). Challenging the claims that the Chinese government has made. Same as other countries, the United States is also going for the benefits that the Northwest Passage and the Arctic has to offer and they believe that the Northwest Passage is a crucial piece to improve their economy and win the race to control the Arctic.

Before 1939, the Canadian Government didn't really worry about putting defense in the Arctic as an enemy attack would be extremely unlikely and difficult because of the harsh climate. Fast forward to World War Two and new technology was developed, such as intercontinental bombers and missiles, now the issues of northern defense became an issue. Furthermore, during the Cold War, the threat of Soviet attacks made the United States and the Canadian government worried. So to solve this, they needed to collaborate and construct defenses to repel such attacks. The United States knew that most of the Soviet attacks, like missiles and bombers had to first cross Canadian airspace and then strike the United States, this told the United States that defenses in the Canadian Arctic was required to ensure their safety. In 1955, the Canadian government and the United States agreed to build a line of 63 radar stations named the Distance Early Warning Line or DEW line for short. These were all built by the United States, but required Canadian government approval and had to follow Canadian laws. Some of the defense project sites were built near Inuit settlements. For example, Iqaluit, Broughton Island, Kivitoo and Ekalugad Fiord. This attracted many Inuits because of employment opportunities and health care, creating hamlets. In fact, by 1963, NORAD provided employment for 14,700 Canadians (including Inuit) at stations in the North and throughout Canada. Of course there were many problems with this because of many culture differences like, skills needed for the work and concepts of work time leading to a difficult time living their traditional lifestyle. Unfortunately, the DEW Line was rendered useless because of the technological advances in intercontinental ballistic missiles or ICBMs replacing slow intercontinental bombers. In 1980, the DEW line technology was replaced by the North Warning System or NWS and thirteen minimally attended radars or MARs. These programs provided large scale employment opportunities for the Inuits and boosted their economic with Canadian and United States service personnel into northern communities, but all these defense programs were built without the Inuits consent causing them many problems, like forcing them to relocate for a new water source, because of heavy environmental damage. In addition, the Canadian government was tasked with the clean up of 42 DEW line radar stations costing an estimated $320 million to $500 million.

During the 1920s, the Canadian government, in hopes of giving the Inuits living in the North a easier life, made them relocate to a different region. Most of the relocates did in the end benefit the Inuits with them reporting better resources and natural resources yield which prevented them from starving. However on several cases, the motivation for the relocation were sovereignty concerns and to support the Hudson Bay Company as they need more Inuit trappers to ensure the success of their business. Later in 1953, the relocation of Inuit families, such as the families from Port Harrison (Inukjuak) and Pond Inlet to Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord (Craig Harbour) caused some people to question the motivation behind these relocation as they were not clearly conveyed to the people involved. According to the report published by the Commission in 1994 states, "Plan was inherently unsound, it was misrepresented to Inuit to gain their concurrence, and the means adopted to carry out the plan were equally unsound." Since 1960, many Inuits have lived in permanent settlements with access to schools, healthcare and other government services. These settlements often attracted the Inuits with employment opportunities, such as the DEW line and also with children going to school, this encouraged the government to start large scale development projects int he settlement. In turn pulling more people to the settlements. However, like mentioned before in the DEW line, living their traditional lifestyle became increasingly hard as families had to maintain a steady income and the long distances the Inuits had to travel to find animal resources. In the 1970s, the Canadian government has stopped relocation projects as the significance of the presence of the Inuits in the North has dropped due the partnerships with the United States. For example, the DEW line. In addition, the increase of federal and territorial civil servants in the North, and increased availability of consumer goods in permanent settlements made the sole dependence of animal resources unnecessary, further removing the tradition of the Inuits. Also, the growing federal-Inuit political relationship were making the relocations even more political incorrect and undesirable.

All in all, the Inuits agree with Canada's claim over the passage but also think that they should get a part of the benefits. Its only fair this way, they are after all the party with the strongest claim of the passage and according to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as, section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 (Canadian law) gives them the right to the land they live on. In addition, the Inuits see this as an opportunity to connect with the world. Currently the Inuits are isolated in small hamlets across the country and this has resulted in many negative result such as the high price of food, similar to the situation in Nunavut. They hope that connecting with the world will help mitigate these adverse effects. On the other hand, critics claim that more ships means an increased chance of disasters such as oil spill which would devastate the environment and Inuits being people who live off the environment would suffer greatly.

To defend something you need the necessary power to do so and that is what Canada is lacking. As you can see from the picture to the right, Canada's fleet of icebreakers is tiny compared to Russia. Furthermore Canada's fleet is made up of a lot of older ships compared to Russia's which is more advanced. For example, the Russian fleet has 6 active nuclear powered Arktika class icebreakers. If Canada wants to assert their sovereignty over the Northwest Passage, they must first be able to back up their claims and should get more military power to do so. Retired colonel Paul Maillet, an aerospace engineer and former CF-18 fleet manager, said the F-35 does not meet the needs of the government’s Canada First Defense Strategy, a key pillar of which is Arctic sovereignty. “How do you get a single-engine, low-range, low-payload, low-maneuverability aircraft that is being optimized for close air support… to operate effectively in the North?” he asked. Right now we are extremely dependent on the US for support in terms of both our economy and military strength so we need to depend less on the United States and improve our military capabilities.

In conclusion, the Northwest Passage might not amount to much today, but in the future it will be an issue causing much political tension. If nothing is done we will quickly lose our sovereignty over the passage. We should exert our sovereignty over the passage and back it up before it is too late. To do so, we must first include the Inuits in the discussions and then get more military power. Canada must act fast before they lose the weak and fragile sovereignty that we currently have. So, we as Canadians should support the government to turn the Northwest Passage into the Canadian Northwest Passage, so we can protect our environment and sovereignty.