{"id":11595,"date":"2021-01-31T23:19:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T07:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=11595"},"modified":"2021-02-02T06:12:21","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T14:12:21","slug":"post2-116","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=11595","title":{"rendered":"“China Wants to Invest in the Arctic. Why Doesn\u2019t Canada?”, The Walrus"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Gloria Dickie,\u00a0Illustration by\u00a0Min Gyo Chung\u00a0The Walrus Founation, Toronto, Jan. 29, 2021\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While Canada ignores the North\u2019s economic potential, China is poised to make inroads<\/em><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

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T<\/span>HE VAST<\/span> mineral deposits of zinc and copper near Izok Lake, in the Northwest Territories, lay glittering but ultimately untouchable until August 2019, when trans\u00adport minister Marc Garneau pledged $21.5 million in federal funding toward the first phase of development for the Grays Bay Road and Port Project, a trans\u00adportation network designed to cash in on the opening of the Arctic. This money would add to the $40 million allocated to building a series of roads across the Nunavut\u2013Northwest Territories border, which will help connect Izok Lake to the deepwater port at Nunavut\u2019s Grays Bay, located along the increasingly ice\u00ad-free Northwest Passage sea route that leads to Asia.<\/p>\n

In 2011, MMG Limited, a multinational mining corporation, expressed interest in building a road to open up some of the Arctic\u2019s remote but lucrative min\u00aderal reserves. Standing to benefit most from this would be the corporation\u2019s pri\u00admary shareholder: the Chinese govern\u00adment. The tremendous cost of the road and port, however, ultimately made the project economically unviable for MMG, which halted further development, in 2013, in hopes that Canada would pick up the shovel. \u201cOn behalf of MMG, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the Canadian government for their support and funding,\u201d CEO Geoffrey Gao said in a press release following Garneau\u2019s pledge. \u201cRoad and port access is the key to unlocking the Izok Corridor.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Stanley Anablak, president of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, an organ\u00adization that represents Inuit in western Nunavut, it mattered not whether in\u00advestment came from Canada or from abroad. Investment had been held back largely by limited backbone infra\u00adstructure in the territories. More roads and ports, better broadband networks and transmission lines, and even rail\u00adways, Anablak notes, could change that. \u201cWithout this project, we will continue to be dependent on the [few] mines that can operate completely independent of regional infrastructure,\u201d he wrote in an email. \u201cWe want to be more self\u00ad sufficient. We need to be in charge of our own destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the entire transportation net\u00adwork project bearing a $1.6 billion price tag, the $61.5 million in Can\u00adadian funding seemed a drop in the bucket, but it is what that money rep\u00adresents that concerns Michael Byers, a Canada Research Chair in global pol\u00aditics and international law at the Uni\u00adversity of British Columbia who has monitored the development for years. \u201cI don\u2019t see a need for us to be subsid\u00adizing Chinese investments in the Can\u00adadian Arctic,\u201d he says. He believes economic benefits to Inuit commun\u00adities are oversold. \u201c[The road] has one purpose, which is to support mineral development in the region\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009and the primary commercial beneficiary will be a Chinese company.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is growing concern that China\u2019s influence in the North could threaten Canada\u2019s autonomy in the region and put politicians in uncomfortable situa\u00adtions as they weigh national regulations with foreign-\u00adpolicy strategies. Canada has spent decades ignoring its Arctic potential, and as a result, the region\u2019s economy lags far behind that of most other northern regions around the world. Evidently, the Canadian Arctic has not proved such a blind spot for China.<\/p>\n

C<\/span>HINA\u2019S GROWING INTEREST<\/span> in the Canadian Arctic, one of the least defended regions on earth, has been a calculated move. In 2013, de\u00adspite not being one of the eight Arctic nations, China gained official observer status at the Arctic Council, an intergov\u00adernmental forum, and later declared it\u00adself a \u201cnear\u00ad-Arctic state\u201d\u2014a phrase that seems to ignore the 5,000 kilometres between its northern\u00admost point and the Arc\u00adtic Circle. The Chinese government has focused largely on the Russian and European Arctic, but in its scramble for resources and transportation domin\u00adation, that is beginning to change. In Greenland, for example, as the ice sheet recedes, precious metals, gemstones, rare earth elements, and uranium are suddenly be\u00adcoming accessible. China now controls over 90 percent of the global trade of rare earth minerals, according to a re\u00adport from the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, and a Chinese company is forging ahead with a mine at the world\u2019s second-\u00adlargest rare earth element deposit, in Greenland. \u201cA big reason the Canadian North trails the Russian Arc\u00adtic, and even Greenland, in resource ex\u00adtraction and development is that it\u2019s just so hard to get in there, build things, and get the product out to market,\u201d explains Adam Lajeunesse, a researcher in Can\u00adadian Arctic marine\u00ad-security policy at St. Francis Xavier University.<\/p>\n

Forty percent of Canada lies in the Arctic\u2014an area with abundant deposits of oil, gas, and minerals. And Chinese companies have already helped fi\u00adnance the Nunavik nickel mine and Lac Otelnuk iron project in the sub\u00ad-Arctic of northern Quebec. Lajeunesse says that Chinese investment in the Arctic is something he\u2019s been anticipating. And the country\u2019s advance toward the Arctic Circle will likely be aided by warming temperatures. In 2017, the icebreaker Xuelong<\/em>, or Snow Dragon, made its first voyage through the Northwest Passage, which Canada recognizes as internal waters. The United States has long contested Canada\u2019s sovereignty here, but as Lajeunesse explains, \u201cChina\u2019s position on the Northwest Passage is purposefully ambiguous.\u201d And, while the Chinese government has said it respects Canadian sovereignty in the region, it plans to freely use the transit passages. Arguing against Canadian sovereignty, Lajeunesse says, would make operating in the Can\u00adadian North more difficult; this way, China reserves the right to challenge Can\u00adada\u2019s claim during future diplomatic negotiations. Given the dangers of oper\u00adating in undercharted waters, foreign nations must rely on the support of the Canadian Coast Guard to ensure safe shipping.Sea ice, storms, and icebergs could all spell disaster.<\/p>\n

China is already a key supporter of the Northern Sea Route, the once frozen shipping lane opening up above Russia that\u2019s expected to shave as much as two weeks off transit times between Europe and Asia. And, at the mouth of the Yangtze River in Shanghai\u2019s Jiang\u00adnan Shipyard, Chinese and Finnish archi\u00adtects recently finished construction on the nation\u2019s second heavy icebreaker. Closing bids for a third, China will soon have more heavy icebreakers than most of the actual Arctic nations. In 2018, the country released its first Arctic policy paper, laying out plans for a \u201cPolar Silk Road\u201d\u2014an Arctic extension of its in\u00ad famous transportation megaproject, the Belt and Road Initiative, which cur\u00adrently spans more than 130 countries. The paper focused on China\u2019s altruistic aims: the Chinese government hoped to understand the Arctic through research, protect it against climate change, and promote peace. But the paper also stated plans to extract resources and participate in the Arctic\u2019s governance. Where does that leave Canada, the nation with the second-\u00adlargest share of the Arctic, behind Russia?<\/p>\n

The Canadian government has been slow to wake up to China\u2019s Arctic ambi\u00adtions. \u201cWe\u2019ve not been paying attention, both defensively and opportunistically, to the Arctic,\u201d says Irvin Studin, presi\u00addent of the Institute for 21st Century Questions. Rather, we\u2019ve focused solely on relations with our neighbouring global powerhouse. It wasn\u2019t until April 2019 that the House of Commons updated its report on Canada\u2019s Arctic sovereignty, which recommended that the country \u201cshould engage with the Government of China to understand their growing inter\u00adest in the Arctic.\u201d Engaging with China, however, has proved difficult. With the 2018 arrest and attempted extradition of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, whatever goodwill existed between the two countries vanished. Soon afterward, China detained two Canadians, includ\u00ading a diplomat. (China denies this was retaliation.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Despite a tense moment in the hist\u00adory of China\u2013Canada relations, Byers says there is zero potential for militar\u00adized conflict with China in Canada\u2019s North. Rather, China\u2019s Arctic interests will take the form of strategic invest\u00adment and acquisitions. In 2013, China acquired Nexen, a Calgary\u00ad-based oil-and-\u00adgas company, in a $15.1 billion deal that essentially transferred a portion of Alberta\u2019s oil\u00ad-sands wealth to China. \u201cChina is very good at diversifying,\u201d says Petra Dolata, a former University of Cal\u00adgary Canada Research Chair in the hist\u00adory of energy. \u201cSome Chinese academics talk about the Arctic region as possibly the second Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, there\u2019s no offshore oil-\u00adand-gas drilling in the Canadian Arctic: a five\u00ad year moratorium between the US and Canada blocked the issuance of any new licences in the Arctic Ocean. But that agreement is up for review in 2021. In the interim, China is focusing on its mining portfolio.<\/p>\n

This May, the country entered a bid to purchase struggling mining com\u00adpany TMAC Resources, which operates the Doris North gold mine, in Hope Bay, Nunavut. The company\u2019s shareholders later voted in favour of the company\u2019s sale to Shandong Gold Mining, a state\u00ad owned enterprise and the second\u00ad-largest gold-\u00admining company in China. This upset Yellowknife North MLA Rylund Johnson. \u201cChina is writing the cheques now and the government of Canada is not,\u201d he says. \u201cCanada is not willing to give Indigenous people in the North enough money to survive. They\u2019re not willing to build the necessary infra\u00adstructure. When China shows up, people here don\u2019t have a choice.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009We\u2019re losing out on Arctic sovereignty.\u201d He\u2019s fearful of a future when the Canadian government has to regulate foreign\u00ad-owned enter\u00adprises or dole out punishments follow\u00ading an industrial disaster in the Arctic. \u201cI don\u2019t want to have to pass laws think\u00ading, \u2018Is this going to anger the Chinese government?\u2019\u201d (After this article went to print, Canada rejected the sale of TMAC Resources, a Canadian mining company, to Chinese state-owned Shandong Gold Mining, citing national security concerns.)<\/p>\n

C<\/span>HINA\u2019S EMERGENCE<\/span> as a major player in the Canadian Arctic doesn\u2019t alarm everyone. Speak\u00ading at a 2019 conference on Arctic affairs, then Northwest Territories premier Bob McLeod addressed the room: \u201cIqaluit to Oslo is 3,900 kilometres, compared to al\u00admost 6,000 from Toronto. And a 10,500 kilometre flight from Toronto to Beijing would be reduced to 6,600 kilometres from Inuvik.\u201d The message was clear: Canada\u2019s North was far more aligned with certain major global trading blocs than the rest of the country was. China was an opportunity, not a threat.<\/p>\n

Indeed, many see China\u2019s interest as a pathway for Indigenous people in the North to gain more control over their economic futures. \u201cIf you are serious about Indigenous agency,\u201d says the Uni\u00adversity of Calgary\u2019s Dolata, \u201cthen some of those communities will say, \u2018If the Chinese want to work with us, bring infrastructure here, we will happily do this.\u2019\u201d It has happened in Greenland, where Inuit groups have aligned them\u00adselves with Chinese investors instead of with Copenhagen. Now, it\u2019s happening across Canada\u2019s Arctic regions. \u201cThe Kitikmeot region has enjoyed a reputa\u00adtion of being open to business,\u201d Kitik\u00admeot Inuit Association president Stanley Anablak notes. \u201cBut being open does not mean being naive or soft.\u201d Any Arctic investor, he explains, must ad\u00ad here to not only Canada\u2019s and Nunavut\u2019s laws but also Inuit protections of the land. \u201cThe Kitikmeot regions com\u00adpete with many other international mining districts for this investment. We are open to receiving investment whether it is from Canadian or foreign companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the prime minister\u2019s atten\u00adtion may be focused elsewhere, northern actors have been paying close attention to Chinese developments in the Arctic and weighing how they might realize the region\u2019s economic potential. \u201cWe have two new borders this century,\u201d says Irvin Studin. \u201cOne is the Arctic border that\u2019s melting. And we have a western border with China. For over 150 years of Can\u00adadian existence, China was a destabilized former empire. Now, it\u2019s got its act together.\u201d<\/p>\n

GLORIA DICKIE<\/a><\/p>\n

Gloria Dickie has written for the New York Times<\/em>, National Geographic<\/em>, The Atlantic<\/em>, and the Guardian<\/em>. In 2018, she was named a National Geographic Explorer.<\/p>\n

MIN GYO CHUNG<\/a><\/p>\n

Min Gyo Chung (mingyochung.com<\/em><\/a>) counts Corporate Knights<\/em>, Cottage Life<\/em>, and The Sunday Times Magazine<\/em> among his clients.<\/p>\n

The Walrus<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Gloria Dickie,\u00a0Illustration by\u00a0Min Gyo Chung\u00a0The Walrus Founation, Toronto, Jan. 29, 2021\u00a0 While Canada ignores the North\u2019s economic potential, China is poised to make inroads THE VAST mineral deposits of zinc and copper near Izok Lake, in the Northwest Territories, lay glittering but ultimately untouchable until August 2019, when trans\u00adport minister Marc Garneau pledged $21.5 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11595"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11595"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11626,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11595\/revisions\/11626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}