The Northwest Passage - at least the more southerly route - is open again this year: Arctic shortcuts open up; decline pace steady.
Yesterday the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, announced that the government will be taking steps to extend Canadian jurisdiction in the waters around its coasts (PM announces government of Canada will extend jurisdiction over Arctic waters).
The Prime Minister proposed new legislation and regulatory changes:
"The Prime Minister announced that his government will be introducing changes to the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act as part of its fall legislative agenda. Currently the Act allows the Canadian Government to regulate all shipping in zones up to 100 nautical miles from the nearest Canadian land in order to guard against pollution of the region’s marine and coastal environments. Under the proposed new law, this jurisdiction will be extended to 200 nautical miles.
"In addition the Prime Minister announced that his government will establish new regulations under the Canada Shipping Act, 2001 that will require mandatory reporting from all ships destined for Arctic waters within the same 200 nautical mile limit."
According to a backgrounder supplied with the press release, Item 2 refers to reporting to Canada's NORDREG system:
NORDREG is the Arctic marine traffic system. The NORDREG system keeps track of all traffic north of 60°, as well as within Ungava Bay and the southern part of Hudson Bay.
The backgrounder says that Item 2 does two things: (1) it extends the current (voluntary) reporting measure out from 100 to 200 miles; (2) it makes it mandatory. Here's the backgrounder: Backgrounder - Extending the Jurisdiction of Canadian Environment and Shipping Laws in the Arctic.
These measures provide more a more systematic approach to pollution and safety control in northern waters, but this also is a more assertive Canadian stance with respect to her rights over the Northwest Passage. Other countries, including the E.U. and the U.S. disagree with Canada about those rights. Here's an article from a Canadian perspective by Randy Boswell and Andrew Mayeda: Who owns the Northwest Passage?, with an eye-catching quote from Canadian strategist Rob Huebert:
"We should copy the Russian model," insists University of Calgary political scientist Rob Huebert, an expert in polar issues and associate director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary. "The Russians have had some international responses to their claims of control over the Northern Sea Route. Their attitude is, you know, screw off. We're going to do what we want to do because we think this is important for the Northern Sea Route. And by the way, here's the fee you have to pay and here's the rules you have to follow."
It's a stance Huebert considers confident and assertive rather than belligerent. But he acknowledges that Canada would have to "back up" that approach to asserting authority over the passage with serious investments in surveillance, inspection stations, search-and-rescue resources and other maritime infrastructure comparable to what exists in Canada's southern waters.
Steven Chase's story in the Globe and Mail has more comments from Huebert: PM pledges wider Arctic patrols:
Rob Huebert, associate director of the University of Calgary's Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, applauded Mr. Harper's announcement.
But he said the United States may challenge Canada's right to require notification if a ship is entering the Northwest Passage, a route it considers an international waterway.
Dr. Huebert said the United States would likely lodge a quiet diplomatic protest as first step, but added that it's not clear how Washington would proceed after that. If a shipper flying the U.S. flag wanted to defy Canada's reporting requirement, this might bring the issue to the fore, he said.
But Dr. Huebert noted that many foreign vessels have an incentive to register - tacitly accepting Canadian rules on pollution in the process - because this means Canadian authorities will share vital information with them, such as satellite imagery.
Here's the AP story: Canada requires ship registration in the Arctic. Alan Dowd reported for Reuters: Canada to toughen requiremetns for ships in Arctic.
Here are a couple of posts on the Northwest Passage debate and the Prime Minister's announcement from The Torch: The right approach to Arctic "sovereignty"; Strengthening Canada's claim to maritime Arctic sovereighty.
"Right approach..." link fixed August 29, 2008.
Actual link for 'The right approach to Arctic "sovereignty"':
http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2008/07/right-approach-to-arctic-sovereignty.html
Mark
Ottawa
Posted by: Mark Collins | August 29, 2008 at 12:06 PM
Thanks Mark, I think I've fixed it now.
Posted by: Ben Muse | August 29, 2008 at 12:32 PM
Good strategy. Canada is a country with lots of improvement and am sure this will definitely work out with the right way.
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