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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces a tough sales job as he tries to rally world leaders gathering in Buenos Aires on Friday to support Canada’s priorities of advancing gender equality, fighting climate change, protecting oceans and investing in clean energy, says a Canadian expert.

Trudeau, accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and Finance Minister Bill Morneau, will attend the summit of the Group of Twenty (G20) leaders in the Argentinian capital from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, the Prime Minister’s Office announced Monday.

“No matter where we live, our fortunes are in some way tied together. So are the challenges we face,” Trudeau said in a statement. “I look forward to joining fellow G20 leaders in Buenos Aires to build on the progress made at G7 to fight climate change, advance gender equality, and strengthen the middle class and offer real help to people working hard to join it.”

Trudeau will have an even tougher job of selling Canada’s democratic values and respect for human rights to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who will be sitting across the table from him, said John Kirton, director of the G7 and G20 Research Groups at the University of Toronto.

“It’s going to be tough going for Trudeau to keep his priorities on track even if he’ll get good support from President Macron of France and the great G20 veteran Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany,” Kirton said in a phone interview from Buenos Aires.

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Climate change, trade wars, Yemen famine, may trump Argentinian priorities

Summit host Argentinian President Mauricio Macri would like to focus the summit on three priorities Argentina set about a year ago, Kirton said.

Macri’s first priority is creating financial instruments to promote private sector investment in infrastructure projects. Facing a financial crisis, Argentina is also pushing for measures aimed at generating jobs. And Macri’s third priority is food security, Kirton said.

However, the big challenge for President Macri is that none of his top three priorities are top of the mind for the rest of the world, Kirton said.

“The world is really focussed on climate change, the climate crisis in the wake of the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), other folks have the trade war between Donald Trump and President Xi of China, and indeed Trump’s protectionist assaults on many other countries, including his G7 partners,” Kirton said.

“And then there is the starvation facing eight million people in Yemen, the meltdown in Venezuela, and over the past 24 hours, the eruption of a naval conflict between Russian and Ukraine over Crimea once again.”

Possible meeting with Trump

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (R) meets with U.S. President Donald Trump during the G7 Summit in the Charlevoix town of La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, June 8, 2018. Photo taken June 8, 2018. (Christinne Muschi/REUTERS)

Trudeau is also expected to have his first face-to-face meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump following their falling out at the G7 summit in Charlevoix in June and a rather awkward encounter in New York in September, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Kirton said it’s quite possible that Trudeau, Trump and outgoing Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto will officially sign the renegotiated U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in Buenos Aires, putting some of the underlying tensions behind them.

“But it’s tough politics because these summits are very much about sending a pretty picture to the people back home and Trudeau might not want to appear to stand side by side with Donald Trump not knowing what mood the president is going to be in,” Kirton said.

The Liberal government says it is ready to spend billions to help Canadian companies compete with their U.S. counterparts.

In his fall fiscal update delivered Wednesday, Finance Minister Bill Morneau warned that while the Canadian economy continues to grow better than expected, if faces new challenges requiring the government to step up its support for Canadian businesses even at the price of going deeper into red with no timeline for returning to a balanced budget.

The fall economic statement delivers $17.6 billion in new spending over six years — about $16.5 billion of it in foregone revenue to boost Canadian business productivity.

“We could have ignored the concerns of business leaders, decided not to make the investments and the changes that are part of the fall economic statement, and we would have had a lower deficit as a result,” Morneau said.

"To do so would be neither a rational response nor a responsible one."

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Response to Trump tax cuts

The measures are a direct response to deep corporate tax cuts offered to U.S. businesses earlier this year by President Donald Trump, who slashed corporate tax rates from 35 per cent to 21 per cent.

Andrew Grantham, senior economist with CIBC Capital Markets, said the Liberal government had no choice but to respond to Trump’s moves.

“With Canadian business capital spending growth already lagging the U.S. by 20 per cent since 2009, recent tax reform stateside looking to incentivize further investments there, and the oil sector looking down the barrel of lower prices, something had to be done to try and boost future investments,” Grantham wrote in a research note to clients.

Brian DePratto, senior economist with TD Bank, said the government’s response to U.S. tax changes took the form of two major initiatives.

The first allows firms to write off 100 per cent of the cost of manufacturing equipment, clean energy equipment, and software, DePratto said.

The government also significantly raised the allowance for spending on computers.

The second part of the government initiative effectively tripled the speed at which businesses can write off capital costs not covered in the first change.

'Relatively small fiscal cost'

All these measures come with a price tag, DePratto said. Roughly $16 billion in net new spending is envisioned, with tax changes making up the bulk.

It is estimated that the changes announced by the Liberals will cost the federal treasury around $4.9 billion in 2019/20 and about $3.8 billion in the 2020/21 fiscal year.

“Temporary, targeted tax measures like those introduced today have the advantage of encouraging new investment at a relatively small fiscal cost, particularly when compared with more broad-based tax cuts,” DePratto wrote in a research note.

“While difficult to assess immediately, we expect these changes should be at least marginally positive for business investment in Canada going forward.”

NDP finance critic Peter Julian said the government’s mini-budget had nothing in it for regular Canadians, arguing the new competiveness incentive measures will allow corporations to write-off big purchases like “a corporate jet” or a “plush limousine.”

Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre condemned the Liberals for not showing any path back to a balanced budget.

“If the government had not blown all of the good fortune that landed on its lap in the early days, they would be able to provide tax relief to businesses and Canadians without borrowing to pay for it,” Poilievre said.

With files from CBC News and The Canadian Press

Environmental and Indigenous groups hailed Friday progress made by the world maritime body towards developing a ban on the use and carriage of the highly polluting heavy fuel oil in Arctic waters.

As the International Maritime Organization’s Marine Environment Protection Committee’s (MEPC 73) meeting concluded in London, several member states of the United Nations’ specialized agency supported a move to have a technical subcommittee of the IMO begin work on measures to mitigate risks of using and carrying heavy fuel oil in Arctic waters, including an eventual ban.

The move was supported by Austria, Bangladesh, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Poland, and the U.K.

At Canada’s insistence, MEPC73 also discussed methodology of assessing impacts of the potential ban on Indigenous and northern communities as well as industry before referring the matter to the Pollution Prevention and Response subcommittee (PPR6), for its next meeting in February 2019.

Loud calls for a ban

George Edwardson, board member for Inuit Circumpolar Council-Alaska and President of the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope (ICAS) hands the first of three binders holding over 104,000 signatures on an international petition calling for Carnival Corporation to end its use of heavy fuel oil in the Arctic and Subarctic to Tom Strang, Senior Vice President of Maritime Affairs for cruise industry giant. (Jiri Rezac/Stand.earth)

Delbert Pungowiyi, President of the Native Village of Savoonga, Alaska, said a ban must be in place as soon as possible.

“Our Arctic communities, wildlife and ocean need it, as they are already stressed by climate change and increased shipping in the region,” Pungowiyi said in a statement.  “The world depends on and benefits from a healthy Arctic Ocean.”

Greenland joins push to ban heavy fuel oil in the Arctic

International maritime body adopts Canadian proposal on heavy fuel oil in Arctic waters

George Edwardson, president of the Iñupiat community of the Arctic Slope and board member for Inuit Circumpolar Council – Alaska (ICC – Alaska), both the Alaska Federation of Natives and the Inuit Circumpolar Council, the international organization representing the Inuit of Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland, have adopted resolutions calling for phase out the use of heavy fuel oil in the Arctic.

“The international maritime community must do the responsible thing and listen to Arctic indigenous peoples who depend on a healthy Arctic marine environment,” Edwardson said.

Canada’s Inuit say they want to see impact assessment

Inuit hunters go out in their boat as the sun prepares to set in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Friday, August 21, 2009. (Jonathan Hayward/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Lisa Koperqualuk, vice president of International Affairs at the Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada (ICC Canada), said the issue of heavy fuel oil was addressed by the Utqiagvik Declaration adopted at the 13th General Assembly of the lnuit Circumpolar Council (lCC) in July of this year in Utqiagvik, Alaska.

One of the points of the declaration calls for a phase out of HFO in the Arctic in order to minimize impacts on marine animals and fish, to protect the environment and to prevent disrupting Inuit harvesting of marine wildlife, Koperqualuk said Thursday in phone interview from London.

(listen to the full interview with Lisa Koperqualuk)

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While the IMO has banned the use of heavy fuel oil in ships operating in the Antarctic waters, the situation in the Arctic is somewhat different, she said.

“This is proper and good for the protection of the environment in the Antarctic where there are no communities,” Koperqualuk said.

The federal government is giving a consortium led by U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin the first crack at inking a contract to design Canada's $60-billion fleet of next generation warships, officials announced Friday.

Government officials say the group's proposed BAE Type 26 design beat out two rival submissions in what has been a long and extremely sensitive competition to design replacements for the navy's ageing frigate fleet.

“The Canadian Surface Combatant project is the largest, most complex procurement ever undertaken by the Government of Canada,” Public Services and Procurement Canada said in a press release. “These ships will form the backbone of our Royal Canadian Navy and will be Canada's major surface component of maritime combat power for decades to come.”

Long due diligence process

Still, Lockheed executives may not be popping the champagne just yet. Negotiators for both sides as well as Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding, which will actually build the vessels, must now work out details — including the final cost — before an actual contract is awarded.

Lockheed Martin Canada Inc. must also go through the “due diligence process,” which includes:

negotiations with the company on intellectual property rights

an assessment of combat systems performance

an assessment of the company’s financial capability to deliver the project, together with the verification of various other administrative matters

The stakes will be high for both sides, with hundreds of millions of dollars in play as well as pressure to make up for lost time as numerous delays — including in the design competition — have pushed the schedule for construction.

“It is always difficult to determine if the BAE bid was the best bid,” said Rob Huebert, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary and a senior research fellow with the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies.

“But I think the thing that I’m most heartened is that we are moving forward and we’re moving forward in a framework that is continuing to utilise the Canadian ship building policy, so that we’re not going back and reinventing the wheel and delaying the process even more needlessly.”

(listen to the full interview with Rob Huebert as he explains what kind of capabilities these new warships will need to deal with emerging threats)

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Irving has warned that it could be forced to lay off hundreds of employees if work on the warships is not ready to start by the time it finishes building the navy's new Arctic patrol ships in 2021 or 2022.

Lockheed's victory is likely to be contentious as the federal government had originally said it wanted a "mature design," which was widely interpreted as meaning a vessel that has already been built and used by another navy.

But the Type 26 frigate, upon which Lockheed's proposal is based, is only now being built by the British government and has not been used on operations.

A warship for the future

The Canadian government is looking for a design that can replace the capabilities in a modern war fighting environment of its existing frigates and destroyers, Huebert said.

“The idea being of course is that for these new surface combatants you will have an anti-air capability to deal with both missile and aircraft threats, they will of course retain an anti-submarine capability and be able to do that in both a friendly environment but also high intensity war fighting environment,” Huebert said.

It’s very unlikely that these new warships will have any ice capability, Huebert said.

“You’d be able to dabble a little bit at the edges, very much like we do know with current frigates,

Thousands of Canadians lined up in queues across the country Wednesday to buy their first legal cannabis as at the stroke of midnight Canada became the first G7 country to legalize recreational use of marijuana and other derived products.

In downtown Montreal, hundreds of people lined up for two city blocks around one of the government-owned cannabis stores to get a chance to buy their first legal pot.

Corey Stone, 32, said he and a friend waited from 2:30 a.m. to be the first ones to buy legal pot in Montreal.

"It's a once in a lifetime experience," Stone said. "It's pretty liberating to kind of come and buy your legal recreational cannabis. It's just feels awesome."

The French-speaking province of Quebec has opted for a government-owned system of stores modelled after the provincial liquor board.

The immaculately stacked shelves behind the counter at the government-owned store on Ste-Catherine street were lined with some 110 cannabis products with names such as Tangerine Dream, Great White Shark and Banana Split.

Cannabis products are seen on the shelves at a new Societe Quebecoise du Cannabis (SQDC) store during a media preview, Tuesday, October 16, 2018 in Montreal. The legal sale of cannabis begins in Canada on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. THE (Ryan Remiorz/CANADIAN PRESS)

The government-owned Societe quebecoise du cannabis (SQDC) hopes to eventually offer a total of about 180 products in the form of dried flower, ground cannabis, pre-rolled joints, oils, oral sprays, pills or gel caps.

"I found it very professional, the store was very well staffed, they were very well trained, the were very open to respond to any questions people had," Stone said.

Michael, a 35-year-old resident of Ottawa who didn't want to give his last name because he often travels to the U.S. where cannabis use is still illegal, said he had driven nearly 200 kilometres from the national capital to witness history.

People wait in line to purchase legal cannabis products outside a government cannabis store in Montreal, Wednesday, October 17, 2018. (Graham Hughes/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

While residents of Ontario can now order cannabis online, Canada's largest province will have no retail stores selling cannabis until April 2019.

"It's a historic day because a series of unjust laws are now gone," said Michael. "And I wanted to be able to say I was a part of this, that I was here the day the prohibition fell."

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Michael said while legalization of marijuana will have little impact on his life and his consumption of marijuana, the move is certainly good for the entire country.

“First, just morally, we’re no longer going to be criminalizing people that aren’t doing anything wrong,” Michael said. “I think it’s going to be good for revenue, there is going to be a lot of tax coming into the government from this. I think it’s going to be good for our justice system, we’re not going to be bogged down, trying people that just want to smoke a joint.”

He dismissed concerns expressed by the critics of the legalization that it sends the wrong message to the youth.

“Just legalizing something is not an endorsement,” Michael said. “It’s just admitting that people are adults and are able to make their own decisions.”

The Canadian Medical Association Journal blasted Monday the plan by the Liberal government to legalize cannabis in Canada as “national, uncontrolled experiment” that pits the profits of cannabis producers and government tax revenues against the health of Canadians.

As of midnight on Oct. 17, Canada will become only the second country in the world after Uruguay to legalize recreational use of cannabis across the country.

Investment in cannabis firms has risen substantially over the past year in anticipation of legalization, with new producers popping up across the country, the CMAJ says.

“Their goal is profit, and profit comes from sales — sales of a drug that, according to Health Canada, will cause a problem in nearly one in three adult users and an addiction in close to one in 10, with higher risks in youth,” says the editorial penned by Diane Kelsall, the CMAJ's editor-in-chief.

Long-term effects of cannabis use not well-understood

In an interview with CBC News, Kelsall said many Canadians simply don’t understand the short- and long-term effects of cannabis use.

“The government by legalizing marijuana has sent a message to Canadians that its use is acceptable,” Kelsall told CBC’s Andrew Nichols. “And as a physician and as a parent I am concerned that the youth of Canada are going to think that this is normal. They are not aware that it could dramatically affect their lives in years to come.”

(listen to CMAJ editor-in-chief Diane Kelsall explain the medical community’s concerns about cannabis legalization to Andrew Nichols of CBC News)

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While short-term effects of cannabis use are fairly well-known, doctors are concerned about longer-term effects, Kelsall said.

The federal legislation sets the minimum age to buy recreational marijuana at 18. Kelsall calls that too young given evidence suggesting that the human brain doesn't mature until about age 25.

“We know that the younger you start using marijuana the more you put yourself at risk of future health effects,” she said. “We know about the mental health problems: if you start when you’re young, you’re at higher risk of psychotic disorders.”

Children who start using marijuana early are less likely to finish school, to hold a job or develop healthy long-term relationships, Kelsall said.

“We know that there are problems with depression, with anxiety, those are some of the ones that we know about,” Kelsall said. “We know it will have effects on the lungs in the future, we know that it’s linked to testicular cancer, we know that it’s linked to changes in the brain on MRI, we know that it’s linked to changes in the chemicals in the brain.”

Commitment to review legislation

Recreational use of dried cannabis and oils will become legal in Canada on Oct. 17, 2018. The Canadian Medical Association Journal is calling on the federal government to review the legislation in a year. (iStock)

Kelsall called on the federal government to take responsibility for the legislation by providing adequate funding for robust monitoring of cannabis use among all segments of society, especially among youth and other populations at particular risk, such as pregnant women.

“We don’t want to find out like we did with tobacco decades down the line that we made a mistake and it actually causes even more adverse effects than we suspect it does,” Kelsall told CBC News.

Research done in the 1980s is outdated, Kelsall said.

“The levels of THC in today’s cannabis are not the ones from the research that was done in the 80s,” Kelsall said. “We know that, for example, our idea of dependence in adults is one in 10 and youth, who start using, about one in six. But that’s based on 80s stats.”

Levels of THC,

Canada has no plans to cancel its multibillion contract to supply Saudi Arabia with advanced armoured vehicles despite ongoing concerns about the kingdom’s human rights record and a global outrage over the disappearance and possible murder of a prominent Saudi journalist, says Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.

Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a prominent critic of the kingdom’s mercurial crown prince, walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 2 to get paperwork for his upcoming marriage with his Turkish fiancée never to be seen again.

Multiple reports suggest Khashoggi was tortured, killed and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate by a specially dispatched hit squad.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Monday Freeland said that, while as a former journalist she is very concerned about the global climate of insecurity and threats facing reporters worldwide, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will still honour a deal to sell Light Armoured Vehicles (LAV) to Saudi Arabia signed by the previous Conservative government.

(listen to Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland explain why Canada intends to honour its arms contract with Saudi Arabia)

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“When it comes to existing contracts, our government believes strongly that Canada’s word has to matter and it’s important for Canada’s word to last longer than one particular government,” Freeland said.

The deal to export the LAV 6.0 model produced by General Dynamics Land Systems Canada (GDLS-C) in London, Ontario, is expected to support about 3,000 well-paying jobs in Canada for the next decade, according to the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI).

Phone and Twitter diplomacy

At the same time Canada is gravely concerned about Khashoggi’s disappearance and she has brought up the issue in a phone conversation with her Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir, Freeland said.

She also discussed the case with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as well as her British and German counterparts, she said.

“Canada and our government has a strong record of standing up for human rights around the world, very much including in Saudi Arabia, we’re going to continue to do that,” Freeland said. “It’s important to establish clear facts about what has happened and it’s important for the international community to be clear that those facts need to be established in a clear and transparent manner.”

Trudeau defends government’s handling of relations with Saudi Arabia

Canada plans to toughen arms-export rules but will honour Saudi arms deal: Freeland

On Sunday, Freeland joined calls by the United Kingdom, France and Germany to launch a “credible investigation” into Khashoggi’s disappearance.

In a joint statement released Sunday the U.K., French and German foreign ministers said they “share the grave concern” over Khashoggi’s disappearance.

“Canada strongly supports our allies on this important issue,” Freeland wrote on Twitter, where she retweeted the joint statement by her British, French and German counterparts.

Canada strongly supports our allies on this important issue // Le Canada supporte fortement nos alliés sur cet important sujet: https://t.co/1lLLwCMZw8

— Chrystia Freeland (@cafreeland) October 15, 2018

Relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia went into a tailspin after Freeland criticized the kingdom's human rights record and called for the release of jailed women's rights activists in August.

Saudi Arabia took a number of drastic diplomatic and economic measures designed to punish Canada for what Riyadh said was a “blatant interference” in its internal affairs,

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended Canada’s policy vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia as a wave of global outrage is building up about the case of Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi journalist now missing and feared dead.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a prominent critic of the kingdom’s mercurial crown prince, walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 2 to get paperwork for his upcoming marriage with his Turkish fiancée. He hasn't been seen in public since.

Multiple reports suggest Khashoggi was tortured, killed and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate by a specially dispatched hit squad.

Citing unnamed Western intelligence sources, CNN reported Friday that Turkish authorities have "shocking and disgusting" audio and visual evidence of Khashoggi’s murder.

Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi speaks at an event hosted by Middle East Monitor in London, Britain, September 29, 2018. (Middle East Monitor/Handout via REUTERS)

Authorities in the oil-rich kingdom firmly deny any involvement in Khashoggi’s disappearance, claiming he left the consulate that afternoon. However, Turkish police and Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, who was waiting outside, say he didn’t re-emerge.

Speaking to reporters in Yerevan, Armenia, Trudeau said he shares the mounting anxiety over Khashoggi's fate.

"This particular case is, of course, of concern, and we join with our allies around the world in expressing serious issues with these reports," he said today during a closing news conference at the Francophonie summit in Yerevan.

"Obviously there is a lot more to uncover on what happened here, so I'm not going to comment too much on this."

Trudeau also pushed back against criticism of his government's handling of diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, expressed by Canada's former ambassador to Riyadh.

Dennis Horak was expelled from the kingdom in August following a tweet by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, calling for the immediate release of two jailed women activists.

Saudi Arabia's diplomatic row with Canada had Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, respond with harsh measures, including the forced return of as many as 1,000 of its medical students across Canada .(Cliff Owen/AP)

Saudi Arabia took a number of drastic diplomatic and economic measures designed to punish Canada for what Riyadh said was a “blatant interference” in its internal affairs, including blocking imports of Canadian grain, and ending state-backed educational and medical programs in Canada, as well as cancelling flights to and from Canada.

Canada still seeking clarity on Saudi Arabian sanctions

Trudeau rebuffs Saudi call for apology

In an interview with CBC's The National, Horak, who was on vacation in Canada when the crisis erupted, said he was not impressed with Ottawa’s “Twitplomacy.”

No one from Freeland’s office consulted him about the tweet and he would have advised against such a strong wording that went “a step too far,” said Horak, who subsequently retired after more than 30 years of foreign service.

Trudeau said Canada’s concerns about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record were nothing new.

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“We have been extremely active – both in private and in public – over many years now around our concern for human rights in Saudi Arabia,” Trudeau said. “Regardless with whom, we will always endeavor to do it in a constructive way but we will ensure that people know that Canada is unequivocal in standing up for human rights everywhere, all the time.”

With files from Kathleen Harris, CBC News

The federal government and Dehcho First Nations in the Northwest Territories have agreed to a landmark deal that will protect a “breadbasket” wilderness area from resource development for generations to come.

The agreement signed by Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and Dehcho First Nations leaders in Fort Providence, N.W.T., on Thursday protects from any future development more than half of the Edéhzhíe area, a plateau that rises out of the Mackenzie Valley to the west of Great Slave Lake.

The Edéhzhíe Indigenous Protected Area/National Wildlife Area will conserve 14,249 square kilometres of boreal forest and will be jointly managed by Dehcho First Nations and the federal government.

“Our government has made a historic investment in protecting nature from coast to coast to coast," McKenna said. "By creating the Edéhzhíe Dehcho Protected Area and National Wildlife Area under the leadership of the Dehcho First Nations, we are protecting a very special place in Canada while working in partnership with Indigenous peoples to advance reconciliation.”

Dehcho K’éhodi Indigenous Guardians and the Canadian Wildlife Service will draw on Dene culture and traditional knowledge and western science to carry out on-the ground monitoring and protection activities.

The agreement will promote and encourage the Dehcho Dene way of life in Edéhzhíe, said Dahti Tsetso, resource manager and director of the Dehcho K’éhodi Stewardship and Guardians program that will manage the new protected area.

“My generation, we consider ourselves intergenerational survivors of the residential school impacts,” Tsetso said in a phone interview from Fort Simpson, N.W.T. “And so working actively towards initiatives that help us reconnect with our culture, to our elders and to our language and to the land are such an integral part of our self-identity process on an individual level and then part of a healing process on a wider community and regional level.”

(listen to the full interview with Dahti Tsetso)

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Dehcho breadbasket

Edéhzhíe is home to headwater lakes, mature spruce forests, and vibrant wetlands; this diversity supports 36 mammal species, 197 bird species and 24 species of fish. (Bill Carpenter/Dehcho First Nations)

The area holds great significance for Dehcho culture and identity, she said.

It includes many important spiritual sites and figures prominently in Dene stories.

“It’s been used, our elders say, since time immemorial to harvest fish and wildlife,” Tsetso said. “During times of scarcity they could always relay on Edéhzhíe to provide them with sustenance.”

Dene elders refer to Edéhzhíe as the breadbasket of the Dehcho, because of its natural bounty, Tsetso said.

Edéhzhíe is home to headwater lakes, mature boreal forests and vibrant wetlands that support 36 mammal species, 197 bird species and 24 species of fish.

Boreal caribou and wood bison – both species at risk – roam in its spruce forests, which are also home to populations of many bird species recognized as nationally threatened or of special concern, including Canada warbler, olive-sided flycatcher, rusty blackbird, common nighthawk, and short-eared owl.

The Edéhzhíe area is also very important for their Tłı̨chǫ neighbours, Tsetso said.

A 20-year process

Source: Government of Canada

The agreement, which comes after 20 years of negotiations with Ottawa, sets out mechanisms of the area’s co-management with the federal government as well as a dispute resolution mechanism, Tsetso said.

“We’ve had 20 years to really think it over, 20 years to figure out what areas are important and how we approach management,” she said.

In July,

The federal government says it is open to talks with territorial governments, industry, and Indigenous governments and communities on the future of offshore oil and gas development in the Canadian Arctic, raising hopes among some that Ottawa is ready to review its ban on offshore drilling.

Northern Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi announced Thursday that Ottawa will negotiate a Beaufort Sea oil and gas co-management and revenue-sharing agreement with the governments of the Northwest Territories and Yukon, as well as the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC).

In 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and then-U.S. president Barack Obama jointly announced an indefinite moratorium on all Arctic offshore energy exploration, subject to a review every five years.

Environmental groups ‘thrilled’ with U.S.-Canada ban on Arctic drilling

Northern fury

Northwest Territories Premier Bob McLeod talks to media after being picked as premier for a second term in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Wednesday, Dec.16, 2015. McLeod says a federal decision to stop issuing offshore oil and gas licences in the Arctic was made without consultation with the people whose economy stands to pay the price. (Bill Braden/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Leaders of Canada’s three northern territories – Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Yukon – were not consulted by Ottawa prior to the announcement and they were furious, said Heather Exner-Pirot, the managing editor of the Arctic Yearbook and a Research Fellow with the EU Arctic Forum.

In one of his first moves as the newly elected president of the United States, Donald Trump announced plans to reverse the Obama policy and open the American Arctic to drilling.

The joint Trudeau-Obama announcement in 2016 had come as the Liberal government was about to launch its Arctic Policy Framework co-development process, making it very difficult for the federal government to say that they were entering it in good faith, Exner-Pirot said.

(listen to the full interview with Heather Exner-Pirot as she explains what motivated the policy change and why there will be no offshore drilling rigs in the Canadian Arctic for the foreseeable future)

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After a year and a half of consultations and negotiations on the Arctic Policy Framework, the federal government heard again and again about northern dissatisfaction with the unilateral imposition of the moratorium, Exner-Pirot said.

Loud and clear

Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa on Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018. (Adrian Wyld/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Leblanc, who visited Yellowknife in August, emphasized that that Liberals heard northern concerns loud and clear.

“During extensive consultations, our partners were very clear: they want to be involved in the management of Arctic offshore oil and gas resources, and they want to see economic prosperity and jobs that will benefit Indigenous peoples and all Northerners in the future without affecting the health of their environment,” LeBlanc said.

Sohi said in a release that the government has been working with both the territories and the energy industry.

“We heard loud and clear that the protection of the Arctic environment and the sustainable, inclusive development of the region for the benefit of Northern residents and all Canadians are critical to growing Canada's economy.”

Welcome news

Northwest Territories Premier Bob McLeod said he welcomes the federal announcement.

“As a resource-rich jurisdiction, the strength of the Northwest Territories economy and the wellbeing of its residents depends on the sustainable developmen...