 Otherwise, we're going to send a polar bear out to direct you back into the seating area here. Anyway, I'm delighted to chair this next panel on American plans for the Arctic Council, but also a lot of ancillary Arctic policy issues coming up from the various sectors and interests in the United States. I've got the Alaska government on my left, and I've got the federal government on my right, and I've got strong views from an NGO, and then I've got an academic and former official, and as a former official, he of course will only tell the truth about how he really feels on everything. I'm first going to introduce Ambassador David Bolton, who presides over both Arctic and Antarctic U.S. policy, an absolutely key figure in the development of U.S. policy towards the Arctic, towards fisheries, and other issues, and invite him to speak for a few minutes on U.S. priorities, experience of the last couple of years, and looking forward to the future. Thanks very much, John. Thanks to CSAS and CG for organizing this wonderful event. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you all for coming. As chair of the Arctic Council, the government has significant influence over the direction and priorities the Council can take, but I think the most important quality a chair can bring is to listen. The Council operates by consensus, and not just consensus of the eight Arctic states and the permanent participants, but of all the stakeholders within all those countries and yes, a growing list of observer countries as well. All of those voices need to factor in, and part of the role of the chair is to listen. And so what I've been trying to do this morning is to listen to some ideas that we've heard already. I'm going to reflect some of them back to you. In the context of what I see as a likely program that the U.S. will be offering up very soon, Admiral Pap already spoke in broad brushstrokes, I'll try to add just a little bit more detail and again try to take up some of the good ideas that I've already heard this morning and then issue an invitation to all of you to continue to speak up and make your opinions known, not just those in the room, but all those with an interest. We've heard it said that the U.S. will be receiving the torch from our friends in Canada at a time of unprecedented interest in the Arctic, that's certainly so. And during our Council chairmanship, I at least have two overriding ambitions. One is to continue some very good work that Canada has done to strengthen the Arctic Council as a forum. It has evolved, certainly since 1996 when it was created, but even in the last few years we have seen it grow, not just in terms of interest and participation, but in its reach. It has taken on some new and important challenges that has created a permanent secretariat and there is further room to grow. Here are some of the things that I heard from Canada that they are working on that I think maybe we can be taking up and continuing. They are working with the secretariat recently established on tracking the projects and in archiving material. They are trying as chair to enhance the participation of the permanent participants that something we should continue to, I think. They are trying to build better relationships between the Arctic Council and other international four organizations that care about the Arctic and that sounds good to me. We need to find ways to obtain concrete contributions from the observers, new and old. We have a lot of them now, what are they to do? We haven't entirely answered that question yet, it's an evolving one, we need to pay attention to it. I heard back from some others, including who I represent from WWF, how the Arctic Council should be looking to have a reporting back and accountability feature more than it does today. There is an idea worth looking at. A number of people who spoke talked about the need to improve transparency and information flow both within the Arctic Council but also between the Arctic Council and the rest of the world. There was a suggestion, Brooks Yeager made it, is there a way to involve local governments of the Arctic in the Arctic Council processes? There's an idea we could take up as well. And of course more money. Yes, it is true, the Arctic Council still operates on a relative shoestring. Is there a willingness, is there a way to have a more secure source of funding for the Arctic Council projects? These are some of the ways in which I think we may be able to continue to strengthen the Arctic Council. Another ambition I have, and Admiral Papp alluded to it briefly, is we have a golden opportunity here in the United States to use the bully pulpit of our chairmanship to educate the people of the United States and yes, other countries too about the importance of the Arctic, U.S. fundamental interests in the Arctic, why the Arctic shouldn't matter to them. And I'm hoping we will have a very robust public outreach effort as part of our chairmanship here in the United States but elsewhere too. Admiral Papp alluded to some specific initiatives that we may be putting forward. I think of them in sort of three different baskets. And again, I don't know if this is final just yet but just to give you a sense at least of what one person is thinking. We have heard from Canada and seen a very good work that Canada has done in support of its overarching theme, development for the people of the north. And by the way, I love the gloss on that that maybe it should be development with the people of the north, development by the people of the north as well. There is a lot in that agenda that can be carried forward to continue to improve the economic and living conditions of the people who actually reside in the Arctic. And Admiral Papp mentioned some of those. The second obvious theme is the Arctic Ocean. Yes, the Arctic is largely a marine space. Yes, the Arctic Council has done some good work already. I think there are significant ways, perhaps even some new ideas we could bring to the table if others are willing to pursue them with us, including possible regional seas agreement. There are other initiatives as well. And the final topic that cannot be ignored is the polar bear in the room is climate change. The Arctic is changing as much as it is largely because of climate change. And while, of course, most of the causes of climate change in the Arctic originate outside the Arctic, still there are things the eight Arctic states can do in the Arctic, potentially with the near Arctic states that are now observers to help mitigate and adapt to climate change there. The listening session is still open, both here today. Admiral Papp and I will be traveling back to Alaska next week to participate in a series of events known as the Week of the North, Week of the Arctic, actually. We will be obviously seeking further input from the other Arctic governments and permanent participants. Their voices need to be folded into our chairmanship program, too. We will clearly be working closely with Canada, as they said, to ensure a smooth transition. And we want to hear their ideas, too, about how best to take up the work that they are doing and continue forward in our chairmanship. Thank you. Thank you very much, Stephen. Our next presenters will be from Alaska to very distinguished people, co-chairs of Alaska's Arctic Policy Review Process and Committee. I've learned a lot about Alaska and learned a lot to learn very much to respect the views and the people who come from there. So we have Bob Herron from the House of Representatives and Senator Lisa McGuire from the Senate. Obviously, people with very rich experience and very excellent representatives of Alaska's interests in dealing with the Arctic. Now, they're going to do a kind of tag team. Bob is going to present a brief deck, and then Lisa will be adding some commentary. Thanks. OK, Bob. Thank you, John. And good morning to everyone. My name is Bob Herron. I live in Western Alaska. And as John has said, the senator and I will tag team. I will do sort of an opening clause here. And in part, say thank you to a lot of people. And then the senator will dive a little deeper into the details, and then I will summarize with my final comments. If we could get the PowerPoint up, it would be a good starting point. But the Alaska legislature has been working on the Arctic for the last six and seven years. The first commission was an Arctic Climate Commission, and that was a two-year effort. Then the next one was what we called the Northern Waters Task Force, and that was a group of legislators and peer experts that wanted to report back to the legislature what the Arctic waters in the north and what it meant to Alaska. But before I get into that, just a couple of comments is that, of course, the senator and I have been working on this for many years now. The John Higginbotham has been instrumental in the last few years in our relationship with the senator and I and the Alaska legislature, especially when we were ramping up for the Canadian chairmanship of the Arctic Council. But the other role that we have played recently is Lisa and I are the immediate past co-chairs of Pacific Northwest Economic Regions, Arctic Caucus. And that Arctic Caucus is Alaska, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. And those three jurisdictions have been working together to, because we have a common effort here, working together. And of course, Minister Ramsey from Northwest Territories, Premier McLeod, Minister Kerry Dixon from the Yukon. These individuals, we have been working together. And I just wanted to recognize that those, the Penwar group, and especially our colleagues in the Yukon and Northwest Territories, this is us. The northern latitudes is very important to us and the people that live there. So the first slide, of course, as you can see, is we're looking to the future. The legislature, the Alaska legislature, has to understand what it means. So we're policymakers and we have the operating budget. But if you don't think Arctic, how can you understand Arctic? And so that's a dual point there that we're trying to represent. But I'd also like to, in this opening statement, is I'd like to thank the other people on the table. It is, of course, John Higginbotham, very key for the legislature to learn over the last couple of years. Ambassador Bolton has been superb in his Arctic team, including Julie Gorely, and now, of course, the Admiral. Is we've, at least my and the commission have enjoyed a tremendous relationship of understanding their federal strategy and them listening to what the legislature brings to the strategy. And then the next person is Marilyn Hyman from Pew. But Marilyn has very deep roots in Alaska. Marilyn and I were staffers together many years ago. I was an old guy and she was a teenager. But is that she brings that wealth of information from a very deep rooted part of Alaska. And of course, Mr. Hayes is outstanding in helping us understand the national strategy. So as you can see, and if we could pass to the next slide, is this is Alaska. And from this Polar Star view, are we key to the future of the Arctic? Absolutely. You cannot separate Alaska from the Arctic, or can you separate the Arctic from Alaska? Next slide, please. Now, this is an interesting slide that I'd like to share briefly with, is this is the US definition of the Arctic region. Now, the line that's biosecting Alaska is the porcupine river flows into the Yukon River, and then it goes down to a place called Pineute on the Yukon and then jumps over to the Cuscoquem, the second major tributary in Alaska, and then down the coast all the way to the end of the chain. So where the line enters the Bering Sea there and then falls out to the Aleutian chain, that's the area that I have the privilege of representing in the Alaska house. What's interesting about the, they call this the porcupine line, is when we were fighting for statehood, President Eisenhower did not want Alaska to be a complete state. He wanted to divide it in half. The lower part of the state would be a state, and then the northern part would be a territory. If he had succeeded, our future would be completely different. But the thing about this picture is because of two major rivers, one that starts in the Yukon, flows through Alaska, the Cuscoquem that starts behind Mount McKinley and flows into Alaska, is the Bering Sea, of course, is connected to the Arctic Ocean. That's our garden. That's what feeds Alaska as well. So the health of the Bering Sea is key to Alaska. Next slide, please. Obviously, this is what we're talking about today in the passing of the torch. Next slide. Now these are our priorities. Now this is what the executive branch has told the federal government is key to success in their chairmanship, and in part, what's going to be successful for Alaska. Now in the executive summary that we delivered in January of this year, we're going to deliver the final, this next coming January, these are woven into the visions of the Alaska legislature, creating jobs, suicide prevention, developing safe and sustainable sanitation facilities for our small communities. And there are 200 in Alaska. And then we want safe, secure, and reliable Arctic shipping. Next slide, please. Now what can we do? The Alaska Arctic Policy Commission and Matt Morrison's Penwar and all the 10 jurisdictions, we believe that we need to educate America and the federal government on Arctic issues, advocate for Northern priorities and Northern leadership. We want to continue the initiative of Canada. We believe that Northerners are Arctic experts and our advice should be inclusive. We should have that opportunity. We want it and we're going to strive for it. Of course, the development of Alaska and Canada's Arctic has national benefits to both countries. And the Alaska Arctic Policy Commission and Penwar encourages the United States to continue these critical Canadian chairmanship efforts. Next slide, please. So this slide, and of course, hopefully we can have the opportunity to answer a couple of questions then. This is what we're looking forward. Do we know the answers yet? Not all of them. So, John, I think that that was just sort of an opening remarks and a turn to my senator. Thank you. Well, good morning to everyone. It's a pleasure to be here. Two little Alaskans up here in Washington, D.C., we always feel humbled to be in our nation's capital. But a pleasure to be invited and to be a part of the discussions for Arctic Policy. And I think if there's one theme that I want to echo in Bob's remarks and to have you think about any time you're in a room talking about the Arctic, make sure there's an Alaskan at your table. As Bob said, you can't separate the Arctic from Alaska and you can't separate Alaska from the Arctic. We are what makes the United States of America an Arctic nation. And we're happy that Alaska wasn't divided and that we do get to be an Arctic nation as a result. Few four points that I wrote down to expand on what Bob talked about today. We have made the rounds with the PowerPoint that was just given and a bigger version of that throughout the state and actually throughout the United States, trying to do exactly what Ambassador Bolton has said, which is to educate the United States about why it's important to get excited about the Arctic. But for this crowd, which is a bit more sophisticated, I have some points that I'd like to make today that I think are important. First, I want to emphasize that I think we're off to a great start. And that is a direct result of the State Department team that was put in place by our president. As was mentioned earlier, the NSAR team, the National Strategy on the Arctic team that was put in place, Bob and I met them in a penware meeting that we were here in the spring, I guess it's been a year and a half ago. And to our surprise, this National Strategy on the Arctic team was getting ready to put their strategy in place. And the two of us had just convened our Alaska Arctic Policy Commission. And we were just assembling our subcommittees and we thought we had a full two years. And so we were sitting there getting ready to discuss the plans to work together and move forward and they told us, well, we're getting ready to announce our strategy. And they were very polite and agreed to pull back their plans and start listening and working with us. And I wanna compliment them on that. The federal government's relationship with Alaska has been tenuous at times, a bit like the Northern territories and provinces in Canada has had with Ottawa. And so you know what I mean when I say that for the Canadians in the room. And so when it comes to Arctic issues, I would say that we're on the right path. And I hope that we continue that. That's my first point. I wanna say that I think if we follow the lead of Minister Leona Akachuk and the way that she has turned in locally and the notion that all politics are local fundamentally and that the traditional and local knowledge can help guide us as we move into the area of international politics, leading all the way up to the Arctic Council, I think that we will be the better for it. So that's the first point I wanna make. Second, as we move into the United States position of grabbing that torch from our best friends, our Northern neighbors, the Canadians who have been there for us in the good times and the bad times. And we start to look at these projects that we're moving forward in. I ask, as I look to Admiral Papp, again, a great leader who's come out of retirement. At 67, he and his wife were making all kinds of plans with their grandchildren. They were getting ready to, I think, visit sunny climates. Instead, he's finding himself in Nunavik, in Barrow. They're not sunny climates. And he is, again, serving his country. And I wanna say thank you very much for that. He did just what he said he would. He came to Alaska on his first listening session and listen, he did. And I wanna let you know that Alaskans have been paying compliments to you widely for what you've done. So thank you very much already. So the second point I wanna make is that for any of those projects that are going to be coming up here, please make sure there's an Alaskan on each one of those teams. Preferably an indigenous Alaskan. Again, that local and traditional knowledge is gonna be very important. I'm encouraged already by the first of the torch passing that we've done in the United States with the Arctic Economic Council. Your team came to us, Bob and I, and local Alaskans and asked us to help pick Alaskans to sit on what would be the United States Arctic Economic Council. And we picked some incredible Alaskans that are sitting on this team. So that was encouraging. And just an overarching comment about what I think Canada has done very well is follow what I would say is the Pacific Northwest Economic Region Model, which is to recognize that the private sector has so much to offer when it comes to policy making. It was mentioned earlier that often we find tension between academia, between politicians and private sector leaders when there doesn't need to be. When you put people in the room, like the Penwar Model, you put policy makers, you put private sector leaders in the room, you often find you're trying to reach the same goal, but if you policy make in a vacuum without asking the very people who are engaged in, let's say, that engineering project day in, day out, will this actually accomplish that goal? You might find that it won't, just by a simple question. And so I think that what you've done in asking us to engage business leaders who are working in the Arctic already, to work alongside those who are in the academic world and the policy making world here as we work in the Arctic is going to lead to tremendous success. So I thank you, Canada, for leading the way, and I thank you, our United States leaders, for following the lead as we pass the torch. Third, I wanted to say that as you come to Alaska, look to our university, look to our state agencies. You're gonna find some tremendous examples of experts. What they have done already in the area of microgrid technology, renewable energy systems, suicide prevention programs are incredible. And I think what you'll find is you can build on those. So rather than coming in and overtaking, which is so often that tendency that we have to create new agencies to bring in your own people, please think about building on what is already there. And I love this idea of creating what Canada has done an Arctic Council Advisory Committee. So I just throw that out there. My two final points, Admiral Papp, talked about this idea of creating a national imperative. And I have often spoke about this idea of President Obama leading in the way that Kennedy did in taking us to the moon. I think it's a fantastic idea. And I've thought about the fact that if this is the race to plant a flag on the moon, we certainly should put as many US assets as we did into NASA, right? All hands on the deck. Let's create a national imperative, but let's not do it just to lock up the Arctic and look at it on a map. Let's do it to create an economic opportunity. Let's do it to explore, to see what's out there in the science. Let's do it to create new shipping routes that create an opportunity to export the arts and crafts that are there for indigenous people. Let's do it to create opportunities for tourists on the far side of the globe to have a chance to see what Alaska is like to come into safe harbor. And then finally for energy. So I would just suggest that I think there are two places that you could sell a national imperative. And those are infrastructure and energy. So right now, as we sit here today, 22% of our imports come from the Persian Gulf. And of that, and that includes Iraq and Kuwait. And we know that those two countries in particular do not share North American values. And so I look to this panel and say that it's North American imperative. They don't share values that include educating women. They don't share values that include human rights. 10% of the domestic, pardon me, of our imports come from Nigeria. And another 11% come from Venezuela. Also countries that believe in arbitrary arrest of human beings, genital, female genital mutilation for slavery and other values that North Americans find reprehensible. Why are we importing crude oil from countries like that when the key to North American energy independence lies in the Arctic? And places like Alaska have a proven, proven background in exploring and balancing environmental protection along with successful exploration. We've already taken in $2.5 billion from Shell Oil. And we have that revenue to successfully move forward with a drilling campaign in the Arctic that I think would be a national imperative, much like the Trans-Alaska pipeline was in the 70s when we faced a domestic energy shortage. So I just throw that out to you, Admiral, as something to think about as you move forward. I respectfully believe that as we move into the future, we are looking at natural gas and we are looking at renewables and they should be a part of our energy strategy, but we know that we're still dependent on crude oil and why not make it from safe North American supplies? And finally, in infrastructure, the Arctic is open and it should be open and it's not gonna be closed. You look at the Northern shipping route in NSR, you look at the 36 polar-class ice breakers in Russia, you look at all of the ports along that NSR. They are open, they are working and yet we don't have a single Arctic port that is developed. You have to make your way all the way down to un-Alaska for that, that's a shame. So I would say another imperative is the fact that we need infrastructure in the Arctic and I invite you to get Americans excited about that opportunity to develop our assets in the same way again that we did in putting our energy into NASA and planting a flag on the moon. Thank you, Liesl. I would like to conclude with a summary and first is that the Alaska Arctic Policy Commission is made up of 10 legislators, five from the Senate, five from the House and then 16 peer experts from all Alaskans from around the state. Of course, Dr. Lawson Brigham is here today. He is a commissioner and there are many other high-profile and very important Arctic VIPs that are on the commission and they bring a wealth of talent to the commission but also there's others that have been helping us and there are a couple of them are here in the room but let me characterize them as Arctic elders. Now the definition of an elder, there are three, you can have a little E elder, that means you just get older. You can have a second elder who is wise but not a big E elder and a big E elder, you cannot self-designate. Others give you that honor but there's another group of people and they're not old in age but they're old in skills and I'd like to list off those people that have helped us in these last two years. The current Lieutenant Governor, Mead Shredwell, the U.S. Arctic Research Chair, Fran Olmer, former Lieutenant Governor. Rear Admiral Thomas Ostobo, who has now gotten that extra star, he was a super talent and then Alice Rogoff that many of you know and then the other individual in the room is the former Senate President for Alaska, Drew Pierce. She has been very helpful, especially in Alaska Economic Council, Arctic Economic Council and then former Deputy Secretary of State, Dan Sullivan. These are our Arctic elders and so we feel that we're gonna deliver a final report that shares what the legislature needs to know and if others think that our product is helpful for them, so much the better. Finally, a couple of observations. I'd like to thank the Admiral. Of course, his latest assignment has been well chronicled. The Secretary had the courage and the realization that he needed a strong individual and so with Admiral Papp and Fran Olmer and when they came to Alaska, we shared with him that where's the indigenous people on your team and he has shared with us that he is on a talent search and that there will be Alaska indigenous people on this top team in the special representative and the State Department's group. Finally, we've been talking about heart of comparatives. So the admirals and others have talked about World War II. We built the Alaska Highway. Then in the Cold War, we built the Dew Line and it was an imperative, both those, but also Prudhoe Bay and the Discovery Oil and the Building of the Taps Line because of the oil embargo of the 70s, another imperative. A fourth imperative that's hit Alaska was the grounding of the XL Valdez but what positive came out of that even though there's still oil on the beaches is we have open 90 now. So in advance of the next heart of comparative that has thrust upon us, I would summarize by saying marine shipping is our heart of comparative. Like Liesl said, infrastructure but marine shipping is going to be our heart of comparative from Northwest Territories, Yukon, all the way down to Ketchikan in Alaska. We have a coastal line that is fragile and it needs the foresight to eliminate that imperative because we already took care of it. Thank you, John. Thank you very much for those very eloquent remarks. I'm sure that the federal government will pay very close attention to these. I'd like to turn to Marilyn Heyman of the Pew Charitable Trust who looks after the Arctic for them as was pointed out, she has deep Alaska roots and excellent representative of the kind of imperative of stewardship in respect of the Arctic Ocean. Please. Thank you very much, John. I'm honored to be on this panel with this great group of Alaskans and others that I've had the opportunity to work with. I don't know if all of you know about Pew's work but we're a science and community-based international NGO and we work in Canada, US, Greenland and in our international waters. We work only peripherally on the art to counsel issues but well, I should say we only work peripherally with the art to counsel. We work on many of the issues facing the art to counsel, spill prevention and response, food security, shipping and ecosystem protection to name some of them. And the art to counsel has been very important contributing significantly to our understanding of the Arctic region both in the reports, the task forces, the working groups and the importance of having communities represented and having a seat at the table. I'm gonna take a little different tack here today and I wanna talk about our chairmanship, the United States chairmanship of the art of counsel and to say that it's only going to be as strong as our actions at home. As we take the chair, it is important that we show leadership, strong leadership domestically on issues, climate change, food security, oil spill prevention and response, protection of biologically important areas and culturally important areas and then improving living conditions and opportunities for people who live in the North. We've made some progress under the Obama administration on stewardship and I just wanna name a few of those things and my colleague to the right has been a part of those. The Arctic fisheries management plan that was passed in 2009 set a good precedent about how we should manage our Arctic fisheries, the approach to targeting oil and gas leasing rather than area wide leasing to make sure that we really look at the ecosystem and we understand it before we make decisions about what should happen there. Not on millions of acres at a time but at taking a more targeted approach, the national strategy and implementation plan of the White House and I think the important piece which David has a copy of the report here that relates to integrated Arctic management and using that as the centerpiece for the stewardship of the Arctic. And then after our most recent disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, I think that there's been some good regulatory reform that has come out of that disaster and helped us to make some good progress on regulations and the way we oversee the oil industry but we still have a lot more to do. We're gonna be in a far more strong position and I think other countries will look to the United States if we take on some strong position so let me name a few of what those, I think those are. We need to adopt world leading Arctic standards for drilling. We have had some good proposed regulations that are on the table right now but there are efforts to weaken those regulations even before they see the light of day. We would like to see such things and I think this will be true for all nations thinking about drilling in the Arctic right now. Having equipment in the region, capping and containment systems, having a same season relief rig that can be available immediately if there is a blowout. Seasonal drilling restrictions to ensure that drilling does not take place in broken ice and times when we know we'll have challenges in cleaning up oil. And we need to ensure that important marine areas are protected, we need to identify and protect biologically and culturally important areas as we look at development in the North. And shipping has been mentioned a lot of times and the AMSA report I think was one of the premier reports that has come out of the Arctic Council and now we're facing how, how do we really implement this on the ground? Recently, the Aleutians Island risk assessment has come out and there are some excellent recommendations about how to have improved spill prevention and response, tug capability, and other response capability that just doesn't exist in the Arctic right now. I can go on and on on these topics. We just were in Nome, Pew funded a forum of all of the tribal leaders of the Bering Strait region to get their perspective on what kinds of things would they like to see to ensure that their culture is protected and that their marine ecosystem is protected as more and more vessels are coming through that very narrow, straight, and we need rules of the road. So I will try to wrap up because I know we don't have much time left and I can see Heather looking at her watch. Yeah. We need to implement ecosystem-based management, particularly in our fisheries right now, the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council is developing a fisheries ecosystem plan for the Bering Sea and I think that is an important precedent to be set for the management of our fisheries and we need meaningful engagement of indigenous people. Too often they're an afterthought in decisions on federal and state lands, particularly in Alaska. Self-determination through shared management is critical and that's a new idea we're gonna hear more about and already the Obama administration has been thinking about how to do a better job of that when managing our resources. And we need, I think as Lisa mentioned, we should add to our team with Commandant Pat, an indigenous person to serve as we move forward with the chairmanship of the council. We have many issues to address and I think I'm very optimistic that this council will actually provide a forum and we can move forward with these important issues that I've talked about but we need to keep the Arctic vibrant and we need to make sure that the people who live there really are at the forefront of making the decisions about the Arctic, thank you. Thank you very very much. Thank you very very much. Without further ado, I'm going to ask David Hayes to speak to us for a few minutes. He's former deputy secretary of the Interior, many other distinguished elements in his career but I'm going to leave that to a future study and just simply ask him to start his remarks. Thank you, John. And it's great to be on this terrific panel with so many friends and in the room with so many friends. I wanna first just say I am optimistic about the US chairmanship. It is really a dream team that's been put together at the State Department starting with Secretary Kerry and Kathy Novelli, Judy Garber, Dave Bolton, Julie Gorely, just amazing and capped with Bob Papp, of course, with whom I have enjoyed adult beverages at 40,000 feet on the Gulf Stream that he misses very much, I imagine right now. So what should the plan be for the US chairmanship? I think that's the question for the panel and I think Susan Harper's comments about Canada's approach should show the way for us which is let's look at domestic priorities, let's get our act together here in the United States over the coming months and pivot from that to a discussion with the international community. This is an opportunity for the US to fully embrace the notion that we are an Arctic nation. Now the good news is that in the past several years, the past few years I would say, a lot of the groundwork has been done for appreciating the Arctic in the United States. We've been having more attention on the Arctic in the last few years. For a variety of reasons, first of all, the climate change expression in the Arctic is so dramatic and it is often used appropriately as a precursor of what we are seeing globally in terms of climate change. Oil and gas and energy issues have been prominent in the Arctic with the exclamation point with the potential shell exploration. Book ended with the oil golf spill, the golf spill in the oil. Indigenous peoples that we've, I think, had a new reborn appreciation for the importance of Alaska natives in this country and the Arctic Council itself has gotten more visibility with Secretary Clinton and Secretary Kerry both attending the last two ministerials and there's been a loud voice from Alaska, the state of Alaska, represented by very strong representatives here in Washington with Senator Murkowski and Senator Begich. And whoever wins, whether Secretary, whether Senator Begich wins or not, we're going to continue to have strong voices in Alaska. You may know my views on that, I won't go into it. And the Alaska legislature with the leadership of Robert and Liesl and many others and the governor. So there, and what has this led to? Well, it's led to the White House coming out with a very important Arctic strategy document in May of last year. It led to the president saying, we're not very coordinated in Alaska and setting up an interagency working group that I was honored to be the chair of and that thinking through those issues and giving an important report to the president that came out in March of last year. Okay, so what should the focus be for our chairmanship in about the two minutes I have remaining? So that this is good discipline, right? And we need focus. So I'm gonna say three things. If you were pivoting off of US interest and concern, climate change has got to be a primary focus for our chairmanship. The president is talking about climate change. We are doing things in the United States about climate change. We're sounding the alarm. The president was in New York last week, sounding the alarm and many would say we've been slow to sound the alarm. Well, we're now there and this administration and our country as a whole in a bipartisan way we hope it recognizes the importance of climate change and the US chairmanship provides an opportunity to do several things. One is to educate all of us and the world about what is happening with our climate. What better venue to promote that education than the place where climate change expression is the most visible and is having the most direct impact on people. This isn't just about the environment. This is about people. And I applaud by the way the Canadian government's emphasis on indigenous peoples as a cornerstone of their chairmanship. Climate change leads to people. The effect of erosion on the villages as Commandant Papp talked about, losing Shishmureff and other coastal communities. The impacts on wildlife, which are important not just for themselves but also because they're a subsistence, important for the subsistence well-being of Alaska natives. The loss of sea ice is opening up those trade routes and we're going to have accidents. We're going to have transit problems. We're going to have new oil and gas exploration, profound impacts on people. Can we deal with mitigation? Can we, and we talked about black carbon. We talked about methane. Can we deal with adaptation? These issues of impacts on people and our wildlife and our ecosystems. Can we build in resilience? Climate change speaks to those issues and that should be a primary goal here. The second and related of my three points is that we need to pivot from climate change to showing how to make good decisions in the Arctic. Governance is sort of my policy word for that. But the Arctic is a fragile environment with climate change we are learning that we have to have a sense of the overview of how ecosystems work in order to make the best decision on where the deep water port should go, on where an oil well may go. What are the impacts on migration patterns, on subsistence, and if we just go project by project as we do tend to do in the United States today, we're going to make really bad decisions. That's what integrated Arctic management is all about. Getting a science base and getting everyone together to make sound planning decisions going forward so we don't screw it up. Integrated Arctic management was adopted as the policy of the United States in the Arctic Strategy document the President released last May. We need to see if we can figure out how to do that. Working with the state, working with the federal government and it's a mess. We have 20 agencies in the federal government who don't know how to work together. And I think we should have Commandant Pap take on a new role, not only looking outwardly to the rest of the international community but who in the United States is going to our domestic issues help pull together those agencies and make good decisions. If we can figure that out and I should say finally in that respect the Arctic Council has been working on ecosystem based management concepts. We should build on that. Other nations like Norway and others have done terrific planning exercises. Let's have the U.S. take that banner and move it forward. Final thing I'll say is on energy. I by the way I think infrastructure and energy are two huge issues. And on the energy front the oil and gas side is huge. And I went through the Gulf oil spill, I went through the Shell issues and holy cow we have got to be careful as a world on how this is developed. And we see what's going on in Russia, in Greenland potentially in the United States there is no infrastructure to respond to an oil spill in the Arctic. And we need to be very smart. The folks at Brookings have talked about international governance, oil and gas rules. There's a tendency not to do that. We should look very hard at that. We need to work together because there is going to be oil and gas development in the Arctic. And there's a shared responsibility there. We have a chance in the United States to lead the way both because of what we've been doing with the Shell situation and also because what we've seen can happen in the Gulf. Final thing on energy is my little hobby horse is renewable energy in the Arctic. Some of you may have seen my op-ed in the New York Times on July 17th. Right now in Alaska there has been some terrific development of renewable energy. How do I turn this on? And I'm trying. Oh, there we go. Okay, so very quickly, Alaska's come a long way with renewable energy. The Alaska Energy Authority, state agency has been very generous with funding and there are about 26 wind diesel projects installed or under construction. With 95% renewables and Kodiak, terrific wind resources on many coastal communities. But each of these projects has been very slow to develop. They've been tailored. Their institutional technical issues, their high costs are customized. And most Alaskan villages and most indigenous peoples throughout the circumpolar north rely 100% on diesel, which is not good. It's not healthy, it's incredibly expensive, et cetera. So the Department of Energy, this is something I was involved in through the Remote Communities Renewable Energy Partnership as an initiative to design, develop, and demonstrate modular, scalable, high contribution renewable diesel storage hybrid systems for remote locations. These are intended for small villages. The goal is to displace 75% of the diesel fuel and to provide not only electricity, but heat as well with really smart technology. Target markets are these very small power systems, including in Alaska, but having applicability throughout the world in small off-grid environments, putting solar in instead of wind, for example. I don't wanna go that way. So, and just to give you a sense of the global situation, there are over 4,000 communities with standalone diesel systems around the world, less than one megawatt, and 1.3 billion people with no electricity. And hundreds of these diesel systems actually have been deployed, but they're very inefficient because we haven't invested in finding a key to create a smart controller system standardized parts that will enable the cost to come down and maintenance to be done much more efficiently. And who's involved in the Department of the Interior, the National Renewable Energy Lab, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Colorado State. This is an opportunity for the United States to use this technological leadership in renewable energy to bring to the world small-scale renewable options to replace diesel and to just show and to remind everyone that the Arctic is about people, that there's not only one way to provide energy and we can improve the health and livelihood of all of the people in the Arctic, and along the way, folks in Africa and on island nations as well. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. So very interesting. We've got time for just a couple of questions before the chair releases its iron grip on your patients. Okay, this gentleman here. Thank you. Mr. Hayes, just policy-wise, how do you balance what probably needs to be done quickly with the kind of time it takes to do the integrated management that you were talking about? I think it's not that hard in that there already are some proven models of how to bring folks together to make good decisions. There, the interagency working group on energy, for example, is working very collaboratively across agencies. There are things like the Arctic Landscape Conservation Cooperative that bring together on the science side in particular, a lot of folks together. I think what's been missing is a prioritization of that activity. And what's been missing is high-level leadership because what you're talking about are essentially, you need high-level folks to work across the agencies and make sure everyone's working together. So I'm optimistic and I think the way forward is mentioned in the Arctic Strategy Document as well as the Managing for the Future and a Rapidly Changing Arctic Report to the President from the working group that I chaired that came out in March of 2013. It just requires commitment and prioritization. Prime Minister Harper makes an annual trip to the Arctic. What will it take for us to get the President to go to the Arctic every year, especially during our leadership? Probably an invitation. One interesting thing about the U.S. chairmanship is its timing. Normally the biggest event of a country's chairmanship is the last event, the ministerial that it hosts, where it brings together and showcases all the excellent work that has been done in its two years and it passes the torch. The next one, that ministerial for the United States will take place in the spring of 2017. We will have a new President, new Secretary of State, and that has led the current White House, current Secretary of State, to be thinking that maybe what we need is some large Arctic event in this administration, presumably in the summer of 2016. The geopolitics of that at present would be interesting. Getting a group of world leaders to Alaska would also be of some interest, and yet we've heard it said when Admiral Pap and I were in Alaska last time, and I bet we're gonna hear it next week, too, that that would be a wonderful opportunity. So we are thinking about that. Thank you. Off that way. Any questions out there in the back? Yes, last question. Yes, Andrei Sidov again. My question is to Ambassador Bolton. You attended the Vladivostok meeting on fisheries. Can you describe to us briefly what was achieved, how important that was, and where do we go from there? Thank you. So the question had to do with, not really about the Arctic. The US and Russia have a longstanding relationship on fisheries, the major focus of which deals with shared fisheries in the Bering Sea in the North Pacific. Each year there is a meeting and alternates between the US and Russia, dates back to the days of the Soviet Union, 1988, was when the agreement creating this was signed. We did have the annual meeting in Vladivostok. Our friends from Russia hosted us very nicely, I would say, and we were primarily focused on an issue that actually is of some relevance elsewhere in the world, potentially in the Arctic, too. The problem of illegal unreported, unregulated fishing that takes place, there is fish product caught in Russian waters that makes it into the US illegally, that makes it into the US market. There's a problem for both of our governments and we're trying to hammer out an agreement to address that and I'd say we've made some very good progress. Vladivostok, it's possible we will have an agreement done near term. We are also looking together at the question of future fisheries in the central Arctic and what might be done to prevent them from beginning in an unregulated way. That was mentioned in one of the earlier panels. Yes, there are discussions underway on that topic, too. Thank you. Abab has some concluding comments for us. Thank you, John. I would like to share with you the Alaska legislatures proposed from the commission, proposed Arctic policy. Is we value community sustainability and thriving cultures? We want to advance economic development and a healthy environment. We want to ensure public safety and security for individuals and communities and coordinate with the feds on national defense obligations and finally incorporate transparency and inclusion in decision making. To say the least, Alaskans don't want to be padded on the head and told what is best for them. We want to be included in that decision. Okay, I think we should all just thank our panel very much and wish them the best. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to start again. Could take your seats, please. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a great honor for me to introduce the Honorable Bob McLeod, who's the Premier of the Northwest Territories, also the Minister of the Executive, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, Ministeral Responsible for Women and Minister Responsible for New Energy Initiatives. He has a long career of service to Canadians in government and in the public service and he's the Premier of a vast and important area and one which is now going through an important devolution of powers from the federal government to the territorial government. I think he's right at the center of these Arctic development issues from a territorial and broad Canadian perspective. He's a very impressive man, a very impressive speaker, so it's a great privilege to introduce Bob McLeod. Thank you, John, for that very nice introduction. I bring a very warm hello from the great White North. I just realized it's October tomorrow, so maybe it's not that warm of a hello, but I'd like to recognize a couple of my colleagues here first, my colleague and neighbour, Premier Taptuna from Nunavut was here and we do a lot of tag teaming together, so I'm very glad that he's here. And also a fellow minister from an MLA from Yellowknife, Camlake, Honourable David Ramsey. So thank you as Premier of the Northwest Territories and as someone born and raised in the North, I'm pleased to be here today to present a Northern perspective on Canada's term as Chair of the Arctic Council. On September 9th of this year, the governments of Canada and Nunavut announced that they had found the final resting place of one of the ships of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition. Lost for 168 years, the fate of Sir John Franklin and his men has been a mystery which has captured imaginations around the world ever since. I open with this fact because I think the story of Sir John Franklin and the many narratives that have collected around it over the years point to a number of themes that are useful for our discussion today. The first point I would like to make is that international interests and the Arctic is not new. Sir John Franklin was just one of many European explorers that began visiting the Arctic almost 450 years ago when Martin Frobisher made his first voyage in search of the Northwest Passage in 1576. The intervening years have seen an almost unbroken stream of explorers come north. Their perceptions of the North played a powerful role in shaping the official history and outside understanding of our region and its place in the world. While the Arctic seems remote and inaccessible, we have connections to the rest of the world that go back hundreds of years. From our earliest contact, the Aboriginal peoples of the North have known and greeted visitors from many parts of the world. Far from being isolated and remote, our region has been an important part of the world economy for centuries now. Early on, visitors to our region recognize the economic potential in our abundant natural resources. Initial contact quickly developed into active trading relationships that saw Europeans regularly traveling into the North living and trading among our people. Northern resources, especially furs, helped to fuel economic growth in Europe, creating wealth and prosperity for its peoples. While interest in the Arctic is nothing new, what is new is some of the countries that are starting to look towards us. More and more countries with no previously articulated interests in the Arctic are starting to pay attention to what is going on in the North. The list of observer nations that the Arctic Council continues to grow, even transnational organizations are getting in on the act. Added to the increased interest from nation states and government bodies is growing private interests from non-governmental organizations, lobby groups, business, and industry pursuing their own diverse and varied agendas. As interests multiply and their implications for the Arctic grow more complicated, the need to coordinate and reconcile them becomes even more important. At the same time, we need to ensure that they do not clash with legitimate interests of the people who make the Arctic their home. That raises the stakes for bodies like the Arctic Council and demands new levels of cooperation and leadership, leadership like the kind Canada has demonstrated during its term as chair of the Council. The second point I want to make in connection with the Franklin expedition is that there has always been a profound economic interest in the Arctic. Franklin and many explorers before and after him were motivated by the search for the Northwest Passage, a shorter and quicker route from Europe to the resources and markets of Asia. While the transportation potential of the Arctic Ocean was being explored, so was the resource and economic potential of the region. Again, this dates back centuries. Martin Froberscher was so convinced he had found gold on Baffin Island that he made a second voyage and recovered 200 tons of ore that he took back to England, but it was not gold. However, there is gold and other minerals in the Arctic, but it requires modern technology and transportation to make mining economical. That did not mean that there was not money to be made in the North. However, whaling and fishing of northern shores have figured as major economic activities. Any story about Canada has to consider the fur trade, much of it centered around the North. From our earliest days, fur has made our country an integral part of the global economy. European traders and explorers lived and traded with our First Nations, creating a relationship between our peoples that continue to this day. While the basis for trade and economic activity in North has shifted away from the sectors that first brought Europeans to northern shores, there is still substantial economic potential in our region. Canada has been the envy of the industrialized world for several years for its relative economic performance. So what has been the basis, the foundation of that strength? Natural resources and particular energy and minerals and much of it in the North. Royalties for mining and oil and gas extraction are paying for daycares, hospitals and schools. They are maintaining employment and generating prosperity across Canada as an increasingly mobile labor force finds opportunities and well-paying jobs in northern communities. Never before do I recall such a time of potential and future prosperity facing the people of our territory. We have in the North what the world wants, what emerging markets need. To speak of just the Northwest Territories alone, we are the third largest diamond producer in the world behind Russia and Botswana and ahead of South Africa. In fact, diamonds account for almost a quarter of our territory's gross domestic product. We already export $2 billion annually in diamonds and I was gonna suggest to Admiral Pap that maybe one of the objectives for the Arctic Council is to have everybody buy a Canadian Northwest Territories diamond. We have three of Canada's diamond mines right there in the Northwest Territories and a fourth one about to be constructed. Our product is recognized as being of the highest quality and conflict-free. We have gold, we have silver, we have bismuth, rare earth metals, cobalt, lead, sink. The vast majority of our mineral reserves are not even being mined. There is so much potential. On energy, we are blessed with an abundance that far exceeds our needs and even capacity to extract on our own. Our territory is sitting atop 81.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas with significant plays in all regions. We have seven billion known barrels of oil. Production is underway in our Norman Wells and in the Cameron Hills. The prospects for more production are real and require only the capital investment and infrastructure to realize them. The potential undiscovered near shore reserves in the Mackenzie River Delta include an additional 10.5 billion barrels of oil, 87 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and four billion barrels of natural gas liquids. We also have gas hydrates in the Beaufort Sea. So as I consider the opportunities and strengths around us, I cannot but conclude that the 21st century belongs to the North. I'm also convinced that we will see in our lifetime regular shipping through arctic waters that had previously remained too seasonal or ice-locked for predictable navigation. Climatic changes around us are obviously presenting challenges and we are sensitive to that. We have great respect for our land and environment in the North and are committed to their protection. But we are also committed to the economic development of our territory and the social development this will bring. New transportation routes will create new economic opportunities that we will learn to use to our benefit responsibly and sustainably. The challenges we face in turning this potential into real prosperity for the people of the arctic while continuing to conserve our environment is one that all arctic nations face. Bodies like the Arctic Council provide an important forum for addressing those similar and sometimes shared challenges and I expect we will continue to play an important role in years to come. The third and final point I would like to make in connection with the Sir John Franklin story is that the voices of the people who call the arctic home matter. The success of the Canadian search for the final resting place of Franklin's ship was due in no small part to information preserved in the Inuit oral tradition. Searches for the Franklin expedition began almost as soon as it became clear that it had been lost. The first one coming in 1848. This summer, a Canadian team armed with knowledge handed down by generations of Inuit was finally successful in locating the remains of one ship in an area that oral tradition had identified. The role of Inuit testimony in the successful search for Franklin's ship is a useful reminder that the arctic is more than a remote and mostly empty region, mostly noted for its unique environmental and ecological values. The arctic is also home to more than four million people living in the eight countries that make up their council. While my government is a staunch defender of the need to protect and conserve the environment and respectfully use and manage wildlife, we must not forget the human element. Humans have been and continue to be part of the fabric of the arctic world and the arctic story. Indigenous people have made the arctic their home for generations. They have lived close to the land depending on it for their material, social and spiritual well-being. They know the arctic and they know what it takes to live there. This is a reality that must be recognized by all states and organizations with an interest in the arctic. Any decisions about the arctic must recognize this human dimension and must take into account the interests and wishes of the people who call the arctic home. For the people of the North, it is a fundamental matter of respect. The North is our home and our heritage. We must have a leading voice in decision-making and we must benefit from the activities that take place there. We're not content to simply sit on the sidelines while national and multinational interests play out around us. Recognizing and respecting this human dimension has been a priority of Prime Minister Harper and his government's Northern strategy for many years. And my government has always appreciated his interests in and support for the North and the people who live there. This summer when he came his annual visit to the North, this was his ninth annual trip and he corrected me that he'd been to the Northwest Territories 12 times since he's been Prime Minister. Canada's support for the North has translated into domestic initiatives aimed at creating a region where self-reliant individuals are able to live in healthy, vital communities, manage their own affairs and shape their own destinies. It is this same focus on the people of the Arctic, on listening to their interests and supporting their aspirations that has perhaps been the most significant feature of Canada's term as chair of the Arctic Council. The Prime Minister sent a strong, positive signal that Canada was serious about giving Northerners a voice on the international stage when he named Minister Leona Adloukak as his choice for chair of the Arctic Council. In making that appointment, Prime Minister Harper made Canada the first nation to name an indigenous Northerner to the chairmanship. Minister Adloukak is an Inuk who was born in and still lives in the Arctic. She understands and knows both the challenges and opportunities the Arctic and its people face in a real and practical way. I cannot stress enough how important this is. Her interest is not theoretical or abstract. It is concrete and direct. It is based on her own experience as a Northerner and grounded in the history and traditions of her people. Nobody knows better than Northern leaders the challenges are people face today. We want to see our people thrive and succeed to participate in and benefit from the economic development opportunities that abound in our region. At the same time, we want to preserve and protect the culture and traditions that have nurtured our people for generations and been a critical source of personal and collective identity and that includes protecting and conserving the land, water and wildlife that our people have depended on for centuries. Striking that balance between past and future traditional ways and modern opportunities is a challenge that Northern leaders like myself, Minister Adloukak, Premier Taptuna face every day. That brings a different kind of focus and discipline to our thinking, one that puts the people of the North first. It is a perspective that can and should inform the Arctic Council and which helps to provide balance to the many other competing interests expressed there. When Minister Adloukak first took on her role as chair of the Arctic Council, she noted that the council was formed by Northerners for Northerners long before the region was of interest to the rest of the world. The world is different now and as international interest in the Arctic grows, it is imperative that that focus on Northerners is preserved at our voice and our interests are heard above the climate. That is why my government welcomes and support Canada's theme for its chairmanship of the Arctic Council. Development for the people of the North with a focus on responsible Arctic resource development, safe Arctic shipping and sustainable circumpolar communities. As Northerners, we very much appreciate the fact that Canada has placed the wellbeing and prosperity of people living in the North at the forefront of the Arctic Council priorities. We have also been pleased that Canada has made it a priority to engage with the three territorial governments of Yukon, Northwest Territories and none of it to help inform its Arctic Council program. One of Canada's Arctic Council initiatives that the government of the Northwest Territories was pleased to support and participate in was promoting traditional ways of life. Traditional activities are both a source of income and a way of life for the Aboriginal people of the Northwest Territories. About 40% of Northwest Territories residents over the age of 15 continue to spend some time participating in traditional harvesting like trapping, fishing or hunting. Northern artisans and craftspeople still practice traditional arts like creating moose hair tufting, carvings, creating birch bark baskets. Traditional activities are part of what makes our people who they are and it is important that we support and preserve it. The transfer of these skills ensures that the history and these values are sustained and important social and cultural links are maintained and contributes to ongoing self-sufficiency. Through this initiative to promote traditional ways of life Canada, Finland and the Gwichin International Council have been co-leading the creation of a compendium of best practices. These will highlight unique successful approaches taken by Arctic states, permanent participants, accredited observers, Northern communities and regions and promoting traditional ways of life. Best practices may range from community level to international in scope and the communication strategy will be developed to ensure the compendium is shared. Our government is also pleased to contribute two pieces to the compendium, our traditional knowledge policy and our take a kid trapping harvesting program. The traditional knowledge policy formally recognizes that the Aboriginal peoples of the Northwest Territories have acquired a vast store of traditional knowledge through their experience of centuries of living and close harmony with the land. Our government recognizes that Aboriginal knowledge is a valid and essential source of information about the natural environment and its resources, the use of natural resources and the relationship of people to the land and to each other. It has been instrumental in ensuring government programs and policies are suitable and appropriate to the people they serve and continue to support Aboriginal identity and Aboriginal ways of life. The take a kid trapping program is designed to introduce youth in the Northwest Territories to the traditional harvesting practices of hunting, trapping, fishing and outdoor survival. The program was developed in 2002 out of concern that the average age of a trapper harvester was 60. It was believed that the survival of traditional harvesting practices would be threatened if more youth were not encouraged to participate. This take a kid trapping program is now complimented by sister harvesting program that focuses on passing on traditional Aboriginal practices. The other initiative that our government was particularly pleased to see Canada promoting as part of its Arctic Council program was the creation of the Arctic Economic Council. For us human development and economic development go hand in hand. We need a strong and diversified economy in the North that gives our people the means to support themselves and their families and contributes the revenue government needs to provide programs and services across the territory. People need an opportunity to succeed and a thriving economy while giving that opportunity. For years though, the North has faced serious challenges in realizing its full economic potential. Some of that is due to our small populations. We lack the economies of scale that support development in other regions. We have too few people to supply the human resources needed for major projects and we lack the capital needed to support development on any significant scale. At the same time, we are challenged by the geographical size and remoteness of our region and our high shore climate. Unlike Southern jurisdictions, the North lacks access and infrastructure that are critical to economic development. Although there's demand for Northern resources, we lack the roads, ports and shipping routes that we need to get our product to market. It is our Northern irony that in spite of the rich mineral and energy wealth of the region, we still face huge challenges. Our resources are going undeveloped and our people are still faced with unemployment, poverty, housing and infrastructure challenges and high costs of living. We need to create opportunities for our people to succeed and creating a strong stable and diversified economy is one of the ways we will do that. Development of our resources has the potential to improve the lives of our residents but it must be managed properly. Development must be sustainable and must be consistent with our Northern priorities and values and development must be managed by four Northerners. The new Arctic Council will meet the dual needs of promoting responsible, sustainable development in the North and ensuring that Northern needs and interests are fully represented. Creating a forum for Arctic to Arctic dialogue will help bring together country stakeholders and businesses from across the North that share an interest in economic development. Businesses already successfully operating in the Arctic will be able to share best practices and technological solutions through the business to business established by the Arctic Economic Council. The Arctic Economic Council also reflects a basic principle which I have spoken about many times before. Partnerships is an essential part of doing business in the North. As a small and isolated region, Northerners learned long ago the value of relying on each other and working together to achieve common goals and interests. I believe that the Arctic Economic Council will be a critical vehicle for creating the kind of productive partnerships that we need to help the North realize its full potential. The arrival of Europeans in the Arctic almost 450 years ago led to the growth of trade and exploration and created the first international relationships between the people of what is now Canada and the rest of the world. While there was early contact with the global markets has provided economic opportunities for aboriginal people, it has also affected their ability to live traditional lifestyles, especially in recent years. As a result of globalization, there's now more than ever increased attention, trade, exploration, and migration into the Arctic, all with the potential to positively and negatively affect traditional aboriginal ways of life. But in this time of accelerated social, economic, and cultural change, the aboriginal people in Northwest Territories and the circumpolar world continue to demonstrate resilience and ability to adapt. We must continue to support the ongoing development of the North while preserving and projecting the traditions that have supported us for generations. We must continue to focus on the human dimension of the Arctic, even as we continue to devote ourselves to protecting the unique environmental and ecosystem of the region and developing its resources responsibly and sustainably. I am confident that Minister Lukak will continue to demonstrate vision and leadership in the remaining months of our term and look forward to further successes from her. I also look forward to the coming chairmanship of the United States and call on it to continue the good work done by Canada and putting the interests of the people who live in the Arctic at the forefront of its program for the Arctic Council. Thank you very much and thank you for the opportunity to present to you. Could we ask you to answer one or two questions? Please. Any questions for the premium? Let you think for a moment. Or the auction clock will start, will declare all questions answered. Any questions? Oh, okay, please. Thank you. You mentioned the Arctic Economic Council has come up quite often today. I wonder if you had a view of its long-term sustainability, exactly what you see as functions being. It's obviously very early on, but I wonder if you had any views on that? Thank you for the question. I've been involved with the Arctic Council in one capacity or another for a long time. Even its precursor, the Arctic Environment Circumpolar Council. And I think that it's a vehicle that is sustainable. I think that it's to all of the Arctic countries benefits to continue to work together as the Arctic Council. And I think there's a lot of very difficult issues in the Arctic that only a body like the Arctic Council can deal with. Admiral Papp talked about some of the things that possibly could be undertaken by the Arctic Council under its chairmanship. I think climate change is probably a good one. Certainly in the Northwest Territories, we have a lot of evidence that climate change is affecting us. We're already having to take mitigating measures to deal with it. And this summer, for example, we had probably the worst summer ever in terms of forest fires. Like we had 304 fires burning all summer. We didn't have, we felt like we're in California. We didn't get any rain for three months. So those are the kinds of things that are affecting us. And certainly I believe the Arctic Council is a body that can deal with those kinds of things. And I think that's where the sustainability will come in. Thank you. One last question. Thank you, Premier, for voicing the concerns of so many Canadians. I want to ask you a question about something you said fairly recently. Namely that you would support a pipeline to take bitumen from Alberta to the Arctic Ocean coastline where it could be then shipped abroad. Presumably that statement was provisional in that you would want to have a full review of all the safety implications for our neighbors in Alaska. And also to ensure that necessary infrastructure, search and rescue, oil spill cleanup equipment was part of such an initiative. And I was just hoping that you could clarify that. Yeah, sure, I'd be pleased to do so. As you may or may not be aware, we have tremendous oil and gas potential and reserves in Northwest Territories and we have been exporting oil from Norman Wells since 1939, I believe. And we're in the unenviable position where our oil and gas reserves are stranded, much like Alaska and their natural gas. And so we've been working for over 40 years to find a way to get our resources to market. And we thought we were there with the approval of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, natural gas pipeline, but the way these things work as soon as it got approved was not coming on because in the lower 48 or upper 48 United States have tremendous amounts of shale gas now. So in Canada, it's become a real problem to get pipelines approved. There's the Northern Gateway Pipeline, the expansion of Kinder Morgan, there's a Keystone XL pipeline. And even within the provinces, we can't even go through our own provinces and we're bordered by provinces every square inch. So if we can't go south, if we can't go west, if we can't go east, we have no choice but to go north. And so Alberta has come to the realization as well. So with our blessing, the commission has studied to look at other options. And we've always said, we're gonna keep all our options open because we don't wanna see our oil and gas stranded for another 40 years. So they came out with a report that said it was feasible to technically feasible to move oil north through the north. And once you get to the Beaufort Sea, you can go to Asia, going up around Alaska, or you can go to Europe, going through the Russian side of the Arctic, or we can go through the Northwest Passage to the East Coast. But it's just a report and the report says that if Keystone doesn't go ahead, doesn't get approved, Northern Gateway doesn't get built, then this is a feasible way to go. And we've always said that whatever proposals come forward, they'll have to go through regulatory review. And for us in the Northwest Territories, if industry decides they wanna put a project going north, it will substantially decrease our costs of developing our own oil and gas resources as well. So I don't know if that clarified your question or not, but that's what I meant to say when I made that statement. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to thank Premier McLeod and also Premier Teptuna, who was one of our, it's a real privilege for us to host you two gentlemen here today. You're right at the absolute front lines of political and economic development in the Arctic. And I think both Heather and I were really very pleased that you could make it and come and speak to us.