Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.  First of all, thank you Gary Lunn for your introduction, and thank you for all the work you’ve done as our Minister of Natural Resources to make today’s important announcement possible.  Greetings to Daniel Caron, Jeffrey Murray and to everyone here who has joined us at the Library and Archives Canada, which is acting as our gracious host this morning.

Ladies and gentlemen, later today I will begin another tour of Canada’s North.  I’ve done this at least once each year since becoming Prime Minister.  I look forward to going north because I see some of Canada’s most spectacular landscapes and I meet some of Canada’s most hardy and dynamic people.  As Prime Minister, I have visited all of the territorial capitals, met polar bears in Churchill, tried dog sledding in Yellowknife.  I’ve looked over the breathtaking Nahanni Falls, visited the future site of a year-round military training base at Resolute Bay, concluded a land claims agreement at Kuujuuaq and stood at the future deep water port of Nanasivik. 

I’ve even dipped my toe into the Arctic Ocean at Alert, the northernmost human settlement on Earth.  Each time I do this, it’s really a great experience, and I come back to Ottawa inspired by the vastness, the beauty and the potential of our North.  And each time I return more determined than ever to draw the gaze of all Canadians northward. 

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Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication.

In a bid to encourage economic development and defend Canadian sovereignty throughout the North, the federal government announced a new program of geo-mapping for Canada’s Arctic.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the announcement on Aug. 26, 2008, noting, “As I’ve said before, ‘use it or lose it’ is the first principle of sovereignty in the Arctic. To develop the North we must know the North. To protect the North, we must control the North. And to accomplish all our goals for the North, we must be in the North.”

Sovereignty in the North may not be a concept that miners frequently consider. Yet it is essential if Canadians are going to benefit from the potential natural resources. I include fresh water along with the metallic, diamondiferous and hydrocarbon deposits of the region. The United States is offering to claim sovereignty over the Arctic landscape, but that is not in our interests.

We must as Canadians make it very clear that the North—its people and its wealth—belong to us. The new federal initiatives will help ensure that reality. Promoting the mineral industry’s interests is a great way to do that.

The geo-mapping program will combine field research and advanced scientific analysis to provide Canadians with a fuller assessment on the extent of mineral and energy resources in the Canadian North. This information will help generate additional investment and economic development in Canada’s northern communities.

The geo-mapping announcement is the latest example of the government’s commitment to protecting Canada’s North. In the past week, Minister of Defence Peter MacKay has participated in Operation NANOOK, a major Canadian Forces Arctic defence exercise, and Minister of the Environment John Baird has announced three new National Wildlife areas on or around Baffin Island. Also, Secretary of State for Small Business Diane Ablonczy announced a major expansion of broadband services throughout the North.