Canadian forces on Sunday wrapped up a two-week exercise designed to assert sovereignty over the Arctic at a time when climate change is fueling international interest in the desolate, mineral-rich region. Five patrol groups started off at separate points in the west and central Arctic and traveled a total of 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers) by snowmobile over snow and jagged sea ice through a region that is almost totally uninhabited.
Most members were part-time rangers recruited from the Inuit, the aboriginal people of the Arctic. The patrols met up on Sunday near the hamlet of Resolute Bay, 2,100 miles (3,360 kilometers) northwest of Ottawa and 555 miles (890 kilometers) north of the Arctic Circle. Although the patrol groups totaled only around 50 people on snowmobiles pulling wooden sleds, it was the largest tour of its kind in the Canadian Arctic for 60 years.
Canada is embroiled in territorial disputes with the United States over the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic – the site of deposits of natural gas – as well as with Denmark over which country owns Hans Island off the coast of Greenland. Ottawa is also sparring with Russia as to how far its control stretches up to the North Pole. The result could be worth billions of dollars in oil and gas revenue.
The rapid pace of climate change means the usually ice-clogged Northwest Passage – a shortcut through the Arctic between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans – could be free of ice in summer by the end of the century. Canada claims ownership of the waters in the passage and says it does not want to see foreign ships using it at will, believing this could increase the chances of a disaster in an environmentally fragile region. The United States and others reject the claim.
