Canada Warns Arctic Drilling Would Violate U.S.-Canada Treaty

"The minimal oil resources in the Arctic Refuge will not make a timely or significant contribution to U.S. energy supplies," Pettigrew wrote. "Consequently, I would like to share with you Canada’s longstanding concerns about oil drilling in the calving grounds of the Porcupine Caribou Herd and to ask that you oppose any provision that would authorize such drilling." Directing his comments to Republican leaders Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois, who chairs the House Committee on International Relations, Pettigrew expressed his personal sympathy for the destruction caused by the hurricane which struck the Gulf Coast August 29. "As your friends and neighbours," the minister assured Lugar and Hyde that "Canada continues to provide all possible assistance and support for relief efforts." The Government of Canada is "particularly concerned," Pettigrew said, "about an expected provision in the Budget Reconciliation legislation to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic Refuge, because it would displace the Porcupine Caribou Herd which migrates annually across the Canada/U.S. border to calve in the protection of the coastal plain." "Drilling in these lands would have a devastating impact both on the Porcupine Caribou and on the Gwich’in First Nations people of the northern Yukon, the MacKenzie delta, and northeastern Alaska, who rely heavily on the herd for food and their 12,000 year old culture," the minister wrote. In accord with the 1987 Canada-United States Agreement on the Conservation of the Porcupine Caribou Herd, Pettigrew wrote, "Canada has protected its portion of the herd’s habitat by providing permanent wilderness status through the establishment of Ivvavik and Vuntut National Parks in northern Yukon." These two national parks encompass an area of approximately 3.5 million acres, more than double the acreage of the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Ivvavik, meaning a place for giving birth, a nursery, in Inuvialuktun, the language of the Inuvialuit, was established on June 5, 1984 as the first national park in Canada to be created as a result of an aboriginal land claim agreement. The park protects a portion of the calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd and represents the Northern Yukon and Mackenzie Delta natural regions. The Vuntut National Park was established in 1995. Vuntut, which means among the lakes in the Gwitchin language, encompasses 4,345 square kilometers of wilderness in the northwestern corner of the Yukon. The park is bounded by Ivvavik National Park to the north, as well as the international boundary and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the west. Pettigrew reminded the U.S. Congressional leaders that "Canada is committed to protecting the Gwich’in First Nation and Porcupine Caribou Herd on which they depend." "We urge the United States to provide permanent wilderness protection to the calving grounds consistent with the 1987 Canada-U.S. Agreement," the minister wrote. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2005/2005-09-21-03.asp [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on September 25, 2005]

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