[BLOG-LIKE POSTING] On Canada's stupid, counterproductive policies in the Arctic

[rfmcdonald]

CBC reports on the latest stage of the Russian-Canadian competition over the Arctic waters about the Lomonosov Ridge, a piece of continental shelf which connects Siberia with Nunavut and which--depending on its precise geography--could give one country or the other access to substantial territory.

The foreign ministers of Russia and Canada both said Thursday they expect the United Nations to rule in favour of their nations' respective rival claims to Arctic resources.

Russia, the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Norway have all been trying to assert jurisdiction over parts of the Arctic, which is believed to contain as much as a quarter of the Earth's undiscovered oil and gas.

Lawrence Cannon of Canada and Sergey Lavrov of Russia said after talks in Moscow Thursday that both nations claim the Lomonosov Ridge under the Arctic as an extension of their respective continental shelves.

The dispute has intensified amid growing evidence that global warming is shrinking polar ice, opening up new shipping lanes and new resource development opportunities.

"We will submit our data on the Lomonosov Ridge and we are confident that our case will prevail backed by scientific evidence," Cannon said at a news conference after the talks.

Lavrov said Russia also is working to submit additional data that will persuade the UN of the validity of Moscow's claim.

"They should provide a scientific proof that it's an extension of our continental shelf," he said.

Moscow first submitted its claim in 2001 to the United Nations, but it was sent back for lack of evidence. Russia then dramatically staked its claim to the region by dropping a canister containing the Russian flag on the ocean floor from a small submarine at the North Pole in 2007.

An Arctic strategy paper signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2008 said that by 2011 Russia must complete geological studies to prove its claim to Arctic resources and win international recognition of its Arctic borders. The document said the polar region must become Russia's "top strategic resource base" by the year 2020.

This competition may not be a very good--at least not very productive--idea.

One international expert on maritime boundaries cautioned Canada could be waiting a very long time for the UN to rule given an accumulated pileup of submissions.

“The UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will decide whether the geological evidence is credible,” University of Ottawa law professor Donald McRae said.

“At the moment the Commission has a backlog in its work. If Canada submits in 2013 then by some estimates it will take 10 to 20 years to get a ruling.”

Arctic security expert Rob Huebert of the University of Calgary said Canada is likely assessing how ambitious it wants to be in claiming Arctic seabed.

“It’s a combination of these judgment calls: how far the science says you can go – and how far do you want to push the Russians?”

Russia is reportedly trying to encourage Canada to combine efforts when submitting Arctic claims to the UN. This effort has not borne fruit yet.

Yes, you read that last paragraph correctly. As John Ivison noted some weeks ago in the National Post, in many ways Canada and Russia are natural allies in the Arctic. But no, Harper--I suspect--is trying to play sovereignty issues for his own partisan purposes.

The Canadian government’s own strategy document says our only territorial disputes in the Far North are with Denmark over Hans Island and the United States over the maritime boundary in the Beaufort Sea.

A dispute with Russia may yet emerge if there are over-lapping claims along the Lomonosov Ridge, a mountain range beneath the Arctic Ocean, where a mini-submarine planted a Russian flag in 2007.

But co-operating with Russia may yield more benefits than confrontation. Where Canada claims the North-West Passage as an internal waterway, so Russia claims the North-East Passage — both of which are set to become navigable.

[. . .]

Sources inside the department said there is increasing frustration at a hostility toward Russia that is manufactured for entirely domestic political purposes. The relationship between this government and its bureaucracy is showing signs of fraying to breaking point. Conservative politicians might joke that a public service strike would bring government to a standstill, if it were not for the fact that it is already. They might not be laughing so hard if they tested the theory. “More and more, the system is starting to resist,” said one senior Conservative, who lamented the aggressive approach taken by the PMO.

You can see, right, why I might favour a new federal government?