EDITORIAL PAGE (December 23, 1991)

The Nunavut land claim agreement signed recently by the federal government and the Tungavick Federation is far from settled. It still has to be approved by a March 16 plebiscite of residents in the area and by the Parliament of Canada. But the idea of putting the administration of government into the hands of the people who live in the north is an idea we endorse.

The size of the area involved is enormous — the entire eastern Arctic from the 60th parallel to the North Pole; a total of two million square kilometres or roughly one fifth of Canada’s land mass; five times the size of California. The agreement gives Inuit title to 350,000 square kilometres and control over mineral rights for 35,000 square kilometres within that area in exchange for surrender of Inuit claims to land.

There is a heavy cost attached to the agreement — $580 million, plus interest, paid out over 14 years and, according to a study prepared for the government of the Northwest Territories, as much as $632 million to set up a Nunavut government.

Despite the cost at a time when the country seems least able to afford it, the agreement is a positive step for mineral resources industries. It will ultimately benefit Canada’s mining industry not only because one layer of uncertainty in developing mineral resources in the area will have been removed, but also because it takes decisions regarding northern development out of the hands of urban southerners.

“It costs money to do these things, but at the same time with the land claim we’ve got greater certainty about rights and ownership of the land, which make heavy, capital-intensive development such as mining and oil development much more feasible and comfortable,” said Ian Potter, the federal director general of land claims.

There’s no guarantee that the area’s government will favor resource development, and there’s no guarantee that further economic deposits will be found in Nunavut. But there is good geological potential for mineral exploration and considerable goodwill between the mining industry and the Inuit to foster future development.

About one-quarter of the Canadian Shield lies within the area’s boundaries and there is already an established tradition of successful mines providing significant benefits to the northern territories. Echo Bay Mines’ Lupin gold mine at Contwoyto Lake, Cominco Ltd.’s Polaris mine on Little Cornwallis Island and Nanisivik Mines’ lead-zinc mine on the northern tip of Baffin Island are all examples of operating mines that have learned to function well in the northern environment while contributing to the way of life of area residents.

The mining industry runs on optimism, and there’s no reason to be other than optimistic that mining would be able to work with a Nunavut government. More important, perhaps, is that a government based in the north will be more directly in touch with the 18,000 people who live there. When decisions regarding economic development are made, constraints put on them by environmental concerns, for example, will not be those of people who live in cities thousands of miles to the south and who have no direct stake in the result.

Urban residents in southern Canada have no qualms about foisting their rules on the north because they do not have to suffer a lower standard of living that results. This land claim agreement brings us one step closer to the point where people in the north will be able to make their own decisions on resource development.

Their decisions may go against mining companies. Residents in the Baker Lake area, for example, may choose to rely more on traditional caribou hunting than for the development of uranium or other mineral deposits. But at least the decisions will be made by the people who have to live with the results.