Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Layton leads delegation to the Canadian Arctic - Wednesday August 29, 2007
Meetings with Premiers, Mayors and community leaders planned
OTTAWA – NDP Leader Jack Layton departs this morning for a four-day tour to meet ordinary Canadians in the Arctic. An NDP delegation will travel to five arctic communities, meeting with political and community leaders, participating in traditional feasts and seeing first hand the challenges and opportunities facing the North.
“The Prime Minister’s focus on military solutions for Arctic sovereignty is too narrow” said Layton. “The NDP knows that to protect our northern sovereignty means addressing social, economic, and environmental concerns,” said Layton. “The growing prosperity gap, being felt by average individuals and by the communities in which they live needs to be addressed once and for all.”
Also on Layton’s agenda is climate change. “We can’t proclaim sovereignty over our Arctic waters if those same waters are not protected from climate change,” said Layton.
The NDP leader will be joined by NDP MPs’ Dennis Bevington (Western Arctic) and Jean Crowder (Nanaimo-Cowichan) as well as academic and author Dr. Michael Byers. Dr. Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in global politics and international law at the University of British Columbia. He is a well-known expert in Canadian sovereignty and author of the recently released book “Intent for a Nation: What is Canada for?”
Layton will be meeting with Premier Paul Okalik of Nunavut and Premier Handley of the Northwest Territories.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Jack Layton’s letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Arctic sovereignty
Monday August 6 2007
Rt. Hon Stephen Harper
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa
K1A 0A2
Dear Prime Minister
The Russian mission to place its flag on the ocean floor at the North Pole demonstrates a troubling reality for Northern communities and all Canadians concerning Arctic sovereignty. It highlights just how far behind Canada is when it comes to exercising our legitimate rights in the Arctic.
To protect our sovereignty, Canada must move quickly to make immediate, strategic investments in its Arctic and recognize that the greatest challenges in the North are social, economic and environmental.
The decision to buy up to eight ice-strengthened military patrol vessels is misguided, since there are more pressing priorities than preparing to go to war with the Russians or the Americans over the Arctic.
The promised vessels, built for no more than one metre of relatively soft "first-year ice," are inadequate to serve as icebreakers in the High Arctic. To exercise our sovereignty, Canada needs vessels that can go anywhere, anytime, in those areas we claim as our own. Rather than buying military "slushbreakers," we should be building new polar icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard. These would be used to break ice for commercial vessels, help re-supply northern communities, maintain navigation devices, provide search and rescue, and support research scientists. When necessary, the icebreakers could carry RCMP, fisheries protection officers or military personnel on board.
As the sea-ice shrinks and thins, shipping in Canada's Arctic will increase dramatically. Two deepwater docking facilities should be considered for the North. One should be located at Iqaluit, as requested by the Government of Nunavut. Its principal role would be to facilitate the off-loading of supplies for Northern residents and businesses. Cruise ships would also be attracted by a deepwater dock, enabling the further development of Nunavut's tourist and artisan industries. The second deepwater docking facility could be located at Nanisivik, where an old wharf already exists and could be refurbished. Its principal role would be to service and re-supply Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers operating in the Northwest Passage.
More than 100,000 people fly over the Canadian Arctic on inter-continental commercial airliners each and every day. Yet only a few Northern airports could handle an emergency landing by one of these large aircraft. The federal government should immediately provide funding to the three territorial governments to upgrade and lengthen northern runways, improve the availability and quality of snow clearing, install or update instrument landing facilities, and enable the 24-hour staffing of airports.
Search and rescue services in the North need to be improved substantially, with the deployment of at least one Canadian Forces Cormorant helicopter to the Arctic during the summer and autumn shipping seasons, as well as new fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft (complete with parachute trained and equipped search and rescue technicians) based in Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Iqaluit.
Canada is a large and often cold country, including the 40 percent located in the Arctic. To further develop their role in search and rescue and domestic disaster relief, more Canadian Forces soldiers should be given cold weather training.
Having ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in 2003, Canada has until 2013 to file a legal claim to a continental shelf extending much further than the existing 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone in the Arctic Ocean. This must be backed up by scientific evidence concerning the shape and sediments of the seabed. An area of ocean floor larger than Alberta could be at stake, containing potentially more oil, gas and other minerals. However, due to inadequate equipment and funding, Canadian scientists might not be able to complete all the necessary seismic mapping in time. For this reason, a significant increase in funding should be provided immediately.
Canada has a longstanding dispute with the United States over the status of the Northwest Passage. For decades, thick multi-year ice protected Canada's interests there. Now, the ice is melting, facilitating shipping. Last year, nine vessels, including four cruise ships, traveled through the Passage. For such cases, Canada needs to acquire new icebreakers that can access the Northwest Passage at anytime of the year, while engaging the United States and other countries diplomatically in pursuit of a negotiated, cooperative approach to the looming reality of an ice-free Passage.
The Canadian Ranger programme provides an important mechanism for asserting sovereignty, offering search and rescue near Arctic communities, in addition to providing employment for Northerners, especially young men. The Canadian Ranger programme should be increased in size by around 1,000 members, with improved funding for transportation, communications and other equipment.
Northern Canada contains untold natural resources, including oil, gas, uranium, diamonds and gold. Yet two of the territories (Nunavut and the Northwest Territories) cannot collect royalties on these resources; instead, all monies go directly to the federal government. The same is true of the over-flight fees charged to the international airlines that send hundreds of planes over the North each day. Yet the federal government claims that there is a net transfer of finances from Ottawa to Nunavut and the NWT. It is time to admit the inaccuracy of that claim. It is time to fix this real fiscal imbalance. The natural resources of the North belong, first and foremost, to the people who live there.
Climate change is destroying Northern Canada as we know it. It's melting the permafrost, undermining buildings, roads and pipelines. It's causing the sea-ice to shrink and thin, putting Inuit hunters at risk and interrupting their traditional way of life. It's putting enormous stress on animals and fish, causing the populations of indigenous species to decline while bringing new, potentially destructive species into the Arctic. It's attracting more shipping, thus increasing the risk of oil spills. Slowing and then stopping climate change as quickly as possible should be an imperative for any Canadian government. Climate change policy is Northern policy, and we have no time to waste.
It is also important that the Canadian government increase the amount of land and water protected from environmental degradation by being given the status of national parks. As a beginning, we recommend that you take immediate steps to expand the size of Nahanni National Park, as well create a new national marine conservation area reserve for Lancaster Sound (and to seek World Heritage Site designation for it).
To truly protect our sovereignty, we must ensure that the people of Canada's North have economic and social security. We ask that you take time to look at the impact your cuts to adult literacy have had on the people in the North. We ask that you take time to see first hand the diabetes and tuberculosis epidemics, as well as the severe shortage of adequate and affordable housing. We ask that you examine the exceptionally high suicide rates.
For too long, Northern policy has been made up on the fly and has had more to do with partisan positioning in the south than about nation-building. It's time for Parliament to be engaged in the development of a comprehensive Northern agenda that sees Canada get forthright in protecting our sovereignty -- not one that focuses solely on the military, as your government has done to date, but one that tackles the social, economic and environmental challenges as well.
Sincerely,
Hon. Jack Layton, P.C.
Member of Parliament, Toronto Danforth
Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada
643C Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, K1A 0A6
Rt. Hon Stephen Harper
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa
K1A 0A2
Dear Prime Minister
The Russian mission to place its flag on the ocean floor at the North Pole demonstrates a troubling reality for Northern communities and all Canadians concerning Arctic sovereignty. It highlights just how far behind Canada is when it comes to exercising our legitimate rights in the Arctic.
To protect our sovereignty, Canada must move quickly to make immediate, strategic investments in its Arctic and recognize that the greatest challenges in the North are social, economic and environmental.
The decision to buy up to eight ice-strengthened military patrol vessels is misguided, since there are more pressing priorities than preparing to go to war with the Russians or the Americans over the Arctic.
The promised vessels, built for no more than one metre of relatively soft "first-year ice," are inadequate to serve as icebreakers in the High Arctic. To exercise our sovereignty, Canada needs vessels that can go anywhere, anytime, in those areas we claim as our own. Rather than buying military "slushbreakers," we should be building new polar icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard. These would be used to break ice for commercial vessels, help re-supply northern communities, maintain navigation devices, provide search and rescue, and support research scientists. When necessary, the icebreakers could carry RCMP, fisheries protection officers or military personnel on board.
As the sea-ice shrinks and thins, shipping in Canada's Arctic will increase dramatically. Two deepwater docking facilities should be considered for the North. One should be located at Iqaluit, as requested by the Government of Nunavut. Its principal role would be to facilitate the off-loading of supplies for Northern residents and businesses. Cruise ships would also be attracted by a deepwater dock, enabling the further development of Nunavut's tourist and artisan industries. The second deepwater docking facility could be located at Nanisivik, where an old wharf already exists and could be refurbished. Its principal role would be to service and re-supply Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers operating in the Northwest Passage.
More than 100,000 people fly over the Canadian Arctic on inter-continental commercial airliners each and every day. Yet only a few Northern airports could handle an emergency landing by one of these large aircraft. The federal government should immediately provide funding to the three territorial governments to upgrade and lengthen northern runways, improve the availability and quality of snow clearing, install or update instrument landing facilities, and enable the 24-hour staffing of airports.
Search and rescue services in the North need to be improved substantially, with the deployment of at least one Canadian Forces Cormorant helicopter to the Arctic during the summer and autumn shipping seasons, as well as new fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft (complete with parachute trained and equipped search and rescue technicians) based in Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Iqaluit.
Canada is a large and often cold country, including the 40 percent located in the Arctic. To further develop their role in search and rescue and domestic disaster relief, more Canadian Forces soldiers should be given cold weather training.
Having ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in 2003, Canada has until 2013 to file a legal claim to a continental shelf extending much further than the existing 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone in the Arctic Ocean. This must be backed up by scientific evidence concerning the shape and sediments of the seabed. An area of ocean floor larger than Alberta could be at stake, containing potentially more oil, gas and other minerals. However, due to inadequate equipment and funding, Canadian scientists might not be able to complete all the necessary seismic mapping in time. For this reason, a significant increase in funding should be provided immediately.
Canada has a longstanding dispute with the United States over the status of the Northwest Passage. For decades, thick multi-year ice protected Canada's interests there. Now, the ice is melting, facilitating shipping. Last year, nine vessels, including four cruise ships, traveled through the Passage. For such cases, Canada needs to acquire new icebreakers that can access the Northwest Passage at anytime of the year, while engaging the United States and other countries diplomatically in pursuit of a negotiated, cooperative approach to the looming reality of an ice-free Passage.
The Canadian Ranger programme provides an important mechanism for asserting sovereignty, offering search and rescue near Arctic communities, in addition to providing employment for Northerners, especially young men. The Canadian Ranger programme should be increased in size by around 1,000 members, with improved funding for transportation, communications and other equipment.
Northern Canada contains untold natural resources, including oil, gas, uranium, diamonds and gold. Yet two of the territories (Nunavut and the Northwest Territories) cannot collect royalties on these resources; instead, all monies go directly to the federal government. The same is true of the over-flight fees charged to the international airlines that send hundreds of planes over the North each day. Yet the federal government claims that there is a net transfer of finances from Ottawa to Nunavut and the NWT. It is time to admit the inaccuracy of that claim. It is time to fix this real fiscal imbalance. The natural resources of the North belong, first and foremost, to the people who live there.
Climate change is destroying Northern Canada as we know it. It's melting the permafrost, undermining buildings, roads and pipelines. It's causing the sea-ice to shrink and thin, putting Inuit hunters at risk and interrupting their traditional way of life. It's putting enormous stress on animals and fish, causing the populations of indigenous species to decline while bringing new, potentially destructive species into the Arctic. It's attracting more shipping, thus increasing the risk of oil spills. Slowing and then stopping climate change as quickly as possible should be an imperative for any Canadian government. Climate change policy is Northern policy, and we have no time to waste.
It is also important that the Canadian government increase the amount of land and water protected from environmental degradation by being given the status of national parks. As a beginning, we recommend that you take immediate steps to expand the size of Nahanni National Park, as well create a new national marine conservation area reserve for Lancaster Sound (and to seek World Heritage Site designation for it).
To truly protect our sovereignty, we must ensure that the people of Canada's North have economic and social security. We ask that you take time to look at the impact your cuts to adult literacy have had on the people in the North. We ask that you take time to see first hand the diabetes and tuberculosis epidemics, as well as the severe shortage of adequate and affordable housing. We ask that you examine the exceptionally high suicide rates.
For too long, Northern policy has been made up on the fly and has had more to do with partisan positioning in the south than about nation-building. It's time for Parliament to be engaged in the development of a comprehensive Northern agenda that sees Canada get forthright in protecting our sovereignty -- not one that focuses solely on the military, as your government has done to date, but one that tackles the social, economic and environmental challenges as well.
Sincerely,
Hon. Jack Layton, P.C.
Member of Parliament, Toronto Danforth
Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada
643C Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, K1A 0A6
Breakthrough Quebec ?
Thomas Mulcair, Outremont
Tel: 514-739-8642 thomasmulcair@ndp.ca
http://www.thomasmulcair.ca/
Bio:
He served as Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks (2003-2006) and he is the author of Quebec’s Sustainable Development Law;
- He served as Quebec Liberal Party M.N.A. for Chomedey (1994-2007);
- He is an experienced administrator.
- He worked as a lawyer for the Ministère de la Justice du Québec, Director of Legal Affairs for Alliance Québec, reviser for the translation of Manitoba Statutes, Professor at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, and as President of the Office des professions du Québec; (1987-1993)
- He is a lawyer with degrees in Civil Law (B.C.L.) and Common Law (LL.B.) from McGill University and has been a member of the Barreau du Quebec since 1979;
- He lives in Montreal with his wife Catherine Pinhas. They have two sons.
Eric Dubois, Roberval--Lac-Saint-Jean
Tel: (418) 812-5464 ericdubois@ndp.ca
Bio:
- 30 years old, born in Alma
- Community organizer by profession
- Activist for peace and social justice
- Currently holds the position of community credit counsellor with the Fonds d’entraide communautaire helping create small business in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean through community investment and micro credit
- Active for 15 years in social justice, rights of the unemployed, global solidarity and resistance to neo-liberalism at the local, regional, national and international levels
- Organized thousands of citizens in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region against the Iraq war and is one of the founders of the Collectif Bleuets pour la paix
- Worked in the creation of the Migr’action strategy in the Regroupement Action-Jeunesse 02 which he chaired between 2002 and 2004
- Participant in Operation SalAMI! in 1998, contributed to the start of the alternate globalization movement.
Brigitte Sansoucy, Saint-Hyacinthe--Bagot
Tel: (450) 250-1200 brigittesansoucy@ndp.ca
Bio:
- Employed at the Auberge du Cœur Le Baluchon, a community organization providing housing for troubled youth
- Involved in the community with various groups and activities, such as La Nuit des sans-abris and the Centre local de développement Les MaskoutainsVolunteer and board member of many community, cooperative, educational and recreational organizations
- Recipient of the Personality of the Month Award in January 2002 from the Chambre de commerce et de l’industrie Les Maskoutains and the Courrier de Saint-Hyacinthe
- Mother of four children
- Resident of the Maskoutain region for 25 years.
Standing up for Canada by challenging the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP)
What is the SPP? The Security and Prosperity Partnership is the latest move toward continental economic and social integration aimed at establishing common policies between Canada, the United States and Mexico in 300 policy areas, including:
- environmental protection
- security
- energy
- food and health standards
- foreign affairs
- military
- immigration
Is the SPP democratic?
Under the SPP, Canada will have less and less ability to adopt independent and sustainable economic, social, cultural and environmental policies. Undemocratic harmonization of health, safety, and enviromental standards will lead to a race to the bottom where everyday Canadians lose out.
How does the SPP infringe on Canadian sovereignty?
Under the SPP, Canada will have less and less ability to adopt independent and sustainable economic, social, cultural and environmental policies. In the long run, this could have a lethal effect on Canadian public programs such as universal healthcare and public education.
In June 2006, the NDP brought together and hosted a Tri-National Forum of legislators and civil society representatives from Canada, the United States and Mexico to discuss alternatives to deep integration.
In April 2007, despite Conservative opposition, NDP Trade Critic Peter Julian (Burnaby-New Westminster) fought for and secured Parliamentary hearings on the SPP. This was an important achievement but much work still needs to be done.
Over a dozen NDP MPs have been working hard in their respective critic portfolios to raise the alarm about what SPP will mean in areas such as agriculture, human rights, labour, the environment, health care, energy and income security.
In the coming months, the NDP is organizing town hall meetings across the country to ensure everyday Canadians get informed and have their say.
The NDP will continue to show leadership, working to ensure that any further developments on the SPP are stopped until a full legislative review, public debate and parliamentary vote take place.
The NDP is fighting to close the prosperity gap and is leading the fight for fairness for ordinary Canadians - and that means taking on powerful corporate interests and the SPP.
“When Parliament reconvenes in the fall, the House will be debating several anti-SPP motions brought forward by the NDP. It is interesting to note the relatively seamless transition from Liberals to Conservatives on this issue.”
- Jessica Johnston, THIS Magazine, July-August 2007
Take Action!
» Sign the online petition
» Learn More
» Download the petition
Join an event
Monday, August 20 - 7pm in Ottawa
From behind closed doors, into the public eye
NDP Public Forum on SPP
Bronson Centre, Ottawa
211 Bronson Avenue (wheelchair accessible) Ottawa, Ontario
Wednesday, August 22 in Regina
Cathedral Neighborhood Centre
2900 13th Ave. Regina, Saskatchewan
Thursday, August 23rd in Sault Ste. Marie
Tony Martin Constituency Office
369 Queen Street East, Suite 100 Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
Wednesday, August 29 in Fredericton
Ted Daigle Auditorium in Edmund Casey Hall, St. Thomas University
15 Dineen DriveFredericton, New Brunswick
Thursday, August 30 in Halifax
Mount St. Vincent University
Seaton Auditorium A166 Bedford Highway, Halifax NS
More dates to be announced
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Francis Chartrand at the NAFTA summet - The Quebecers deserve more on Montebello discutions.
DEUX MONTAGNES - The NDP shares concerns as for the absence of transparency and democratic monitoring in what attracted with the implementation of the North-American Partnership for safety and the prosperity (PSP), which will be held with the Montebello Castle the next August 20th and 21th at the NAFTA summet.
- This partnership raised questions concerning the transparency, the weakening of the standards as regards safety and the democratic absence of monitoring with regard to the process of the PSP, support Francis Chartrand, candidate of the New democratic party to the next federal elections in Rivière-des-Mille-Îles.
The spokesman of the NDP on international trade, Peter Julian (Burnaby-New Westminster), deposited a motion at the Standing Committee on the international trade which will be presented this autumn in session, exhorting the Parliament to be put an end to the implementation of the PSP until there is true public consultations and an increased parliamentary monitoring.
- During this top, various opponents with the policies of the Bush governments and Harper as with the PSP will hold several demonstrations in Outaouais, points out Francis Chartrand. I will be present as an accompanied observer, in addition to 30 NDP young delegates, with about 50 delegates coming from Lower Laurentians representing various regional and local organizations defending the rights of the person as well as the environment, in addition to the organizations which make the fight with poverty.
Organized and well present on the ground, the delegates of New Democrat Association of Rivière-des-Mille-Îles hope that this demonstration as well as the top will begin a debate on the economic sovereignty of Canada compared to the United States and in Mexico which is put in danger by current free trade.
L'Éveil - Saturday on August 18, 2007
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