By mapping the seabed using radar, the government will take a step towards establishing sovereignty under international law.
The 2004 budget allocated $51 million over 10 years to map the Arctic continental shelf.
"The data collected will lead to a formal submission under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and help secure Canada's sovereignty in the High Arctic," the budget said.
Canada claims the border under the Beaufort Sea runs straight from the Alaska-Northwest Territories border. The U.S. says it angles east from the shoreline.
At stake is a huge volume of sub-sea oil and gas.
The U.S. recently offered four development licences to American companies in the disputed area.
The Department of Foreign Affairs responded with a diplomatic note saying Canada rejects the U.S. effort to claim jurisdiction, a spokesperson said.
Written by CBC News Online staff
The Americans say the Alaska-Yukon border goes towards Ellesmere Island, and not straight towards the North Pole like it has done for the last 70 years. See a map here. James Laxer has written that the biggest challenge for us in the 21st century will be sovreignty up north. I think he may be right.
Note: from CBC
here
Stumble It!
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Dave Ruston
In addition, in any dispute with the US, we will undoubtedly win in any court, but what has that done for us in our NAFTA follies?
We may as well draw the Canadian map as they did the world in the Middle Ages, with that big blank spot they call the Arctic labelled "Here there be Dragons" for what Canadians know of this part of their own nation.
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"These Yankee politicians are the lowest race of thieves in existence." - Sir John Sparrow Thompson
But, hey, let's admit it it: that requires too much advanced thinking of our buracrates on Parliament Hill.
Face it: we're dommed, doomed, doomed unless a very nationalist government takes hold in Ottawa. But, gradually, as I see my friends being bought out by more pro-American ways of thinking, I cannot see how we will be able to BEGIN to assert our sovereignty (because we cannot use Dief's Dempster Highway as our standard of achievement in the North) when our federal politicians are continuously being bought out by sell-out wanna be American politicians such as Stephen Harper and his ilk, a.k.a. the Republican Party of Canada.
While it could be contrived that Harper supports increased defense spending, we all know that this money would go towards increased border security (really, more free-flow of trade) with the U.S. and supporting the U.S. "War or Terrorism" and not towards asserting Canada's claim in the North (with a capital N because I am a proud Northerner).
While I am very doubtful that Martin's Liberals will return to the grand experience of true democracy in Canada, (his attitude reminds me a lot of Joe's Clark in his minority goverment) as it occurred during the Trudeau-N.D.P. minority era of '72-74, I advise readers to read Mel Hurtig's "The Vanishing Country" to put all of this into context.
- Although I am from family of immigrants, I support former Manotoba premier's Ed Schreyer's notion of "championing the underdogs." This stick-to-it ness is what one lacks in today's Canadian society.
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Dave Ruston
adamant we have everything to the Pole and should keep it
(to which I'm agreeable) should have a Canada-map icon
that's missing that part...