“Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage” – Stan Rogers
Take the Northwest Passage with us and share this uniquely Canadian experience. We start in Kugluktuk on Sunday September 1st and transfer Monday September 2nd to the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St-Laurent. Action Canada Fellows, advisors and staff will be providing regular dispatches throughout our trip. However, internet access will be limited and intermittent so we can’t guarantee when they’ll be posted.
If you are new to Action Canada, please take a moment to explore our website, learn about this national leadership program and meet our 2013/2014 Fellows. They are a diverse and dynamic group of young leaders – passionate about everything from community engagement and local governance to social enterprise, genetic medicine, sustainable development, urban design, volunteering, kayaking and cross-country skiing.
What Are We Doing?
Action Canada travels to northern Canada each year to examine – onsite – local history, public policy issues, economic, social development and research activities and to meet the northerners living in this vast and stunningly beautiful part of our country.
This year’s Northern Conference focuses on the Arctic and takes place on the Canadian Coast Guard’s largest ice-breaker, the venerable Louis S. St-Laurent (the Louis). We start Saturday, August 31st in Yellowknife with a logistical briefing and, on Sunday, review and discuss our background readings and Arctic Policy papers (The Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1918 and The Canadian Coast Guard in Perspective) before flying to Kugluktuk where we will meet with the Commissioner of Nunavut who served previously as Mayor of Kugluktuk.
Monday, we board the ice-breaker. Travelling more than 1,000 kilometers northeast, we will learn from our northern experts and, as in all Action Canada conferences, participate in signature leadership skills sessions.
Fellows will also shadow crew members to learn about the Coast Guard’s importance to the North, the ship’s mandate and activities such as northern scientific research, as well as vessel engineering, logistics and navigation/operations. They’ll present what they learned to the crew on our final evening on board.
Friday, September 6th, we disembark at Resolute and spend a night with the Polar Shelf Continental Project. The opportunity to meet with scientists and operations people at this far north research centre will help Fellows understand the interests of Arctic communities, the importance of traditional knowledge and the complexity of developing and implementing policy initiatives.
Saturday, September 7th, we return to Yellowknife and return to our homes across the country Sunday, September 8th.
What Comes Next?
Action Canada Fellows are assigned to one of three Task Force groups. Each group chooses a public policy issue related to this year’s theme: Applying lessons from Canadian history in the development of public policy for northern Canada.
This year’s Task Force projects are:
- Mining Compliance Process in Northern Canada
- The Role of Public Private Partnerships in Infrastructure Development in Nunavut
- Addressing Nunavut Food Security Through Increased Access to Country Food
Over the next few months, Fellows will study these issues and write reports. They will make policy recommendations and present them publicly in Ottawa in February 2014. They will write press releases, give interviews, present to government and corporate officials, and submit articles to major national publishers. You can see past Task Force reports here.
Our visit to the Arctic will inform Fellows’ Task Force research over the coming months and their final reports and recommendations.
We hope you will join us on this journey.
Next blog – from the north!
