As a result of their deliberations committees may make recommendations which they include in their reports for the consideration of the House of Commons or the Government. Recommendations related to this study are listed below.

Meaningful Partnerships with Indigenous Peoples and Northern Communities

Recommendation 10

The Government of Canada should develop a co-management framework for Canada’s Arctic waters that would see Inuit in a leadership role alongside the federal government, and that would bring together all departments and agencies of the federal and territorial governments that have responsibilities in Canada’s Arctic waters, as well as relevant land claims organizations and the Nunavut Marine Council.

Recommendation 9

As part of the implementation of the Coast Guard’s new operational region in the Arctic, the Government of Canada should take steps, in close collaboration with Inuit organizations and communities, to work toward greater Inuit representation in the Canadian Coast Guard and greater Coast Guard presence across the Canadian Arctic.

Recommendation 19

The Government of Canada should work with territorial, Indigenous and local governments to help secure locally driven solutions to the challenges of clean, reliable and affordable energy in the Canadian Arctic.

Recommendation 20

The Government of Canada should ensure that federal decisions affecting economic development in the Canadian North reflect meaningful consultations with territorial governments and Indigenous organizations, including with respect to the future development of offshore oil and gas.

Recommendation 23

In close collaboration with territorial governments, as well as Indigenous organizations and Indigenous development corporations, the Government of Canada should work to close the infrastructure gap between Canada’s northern and southern communities, with a particular focus on transportation and connectivity. Funding mechanisms should be sufficiently ambitious in scale as to allow proponents to apply for federal support toward the realization of nation-building projects.

Recommendation 24

Whenever there is investment in defence-related infrastructure in the Canadian Arctic, the Government of Canada should conduct an analysis of civilian needs in the surrounding area with the view to ensuring the greatest possible benefit to Northern communities from defence spending.

Recommendation 28

The Government of Canada should prepare an annual report to Parliament on the federal role and responsibilities in the Canadian Arctic, the budgetary resources that have been allocated toward relevant policy targets, and the outcomes that have been achieved from that expenditure in partnership with territorial governments and Indigenous organizations.

Defence, Security and Stewardship

Recommendation 11

The Government of Canada should upgrade the Canadian Coast Guard’s icebreaking fleet so that it may continue to deliver critical programs and services to Canadians, through a process that will ensure there are no gaps in the coming years in Canada’s maritime security and domain awareness, scientific research, or search and rescue capabilities.

Recommendation 12

The Government of Canada should set a time-bound goal to complete its mapping, according to modern standards, of the most frequently used marine corridors in the Canadian Arctic.

Recommendation 13

The Government of Canada should increase the funding available to the National Aerial Surveillance Program so that it can cover more territory more frequently in the Canadian Arctic. The federal government should also ensure that the program is able to acquire new surveillance equipment and replacement aircraft when needed.

Recommendation 14

The Government of Canada should continue to invest in new technology that can improve its awareness of sub-surface activity approaching or in the Arctic, including by working closely with the United States through NORAD.

Recommendation 15

The Government of Canada should review search and rescue needs on an ongoing basis and in concert with its territorial partners to determine whether air assets should be deployed in the North on either a seasonal or a full-time basis. Should a needs assessment indicate, at any point, that such a forward-deployed capability is required in the North, the government should provide additional funding to the Canadian Armed Forces so that search and rescue services are in no way diminished in southern Canada.

Recommendation 16

The Government of Canada should explore the possibility of training the Canadian Rangers and Junior Rangers in the use of drones for the purposes of enhancing Canada’s domain awareness in the Arctic. Should such a program prove feasible, the government should allocate new funding for the distribution, sustainment and repair of the necessary equipment, as well as the enhancement of the Canadian Armed Forces’ communications infrastructure in the North.

Recommendation 17

The Government of Canada should allocate long-term funding for the replacement of the North Warning System, as part of ongoing discussions with the United States regarding the modernization of NORAD capabilities in the Arctic.

Recommendation 18

The Government of Canada should review the forward operating locations used by Canada’s fighter jets to determine whether any infrastructure enhancements are required at the existing sites to enable an effective and sustained presence, and whether there should be any new sites in the Canadian Arctic, with the objective of advancing the line of North American defence as far out as possible.

Recommendation 21

The Government of Canada should review the Remote Sensing Space Systems Act to determine whether it has kept pace with technological developments in the remote sensing field, and whether Global Affairs Canada continues to be the most appropriate department for handling licence applications made pursuant to the Act. As part of that process, the federal government should take into account the recommendations put forward in the 2012 and 2017 independent reviews of the Act.

Geopolitics

Recommendation 1

As part of deterring and defending against any threat to the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Government of Canada should work with its partners in the North Atlantic Council to deepen the Alliance’s understanding of Russia’s military intentions in the Arctic and to consider the most appropriate and measured response.

Recommendation 3

The Government of Canada should engage with the Government of China to understand their growing interest in the Arctic.

Circumpolar Diplomacy and Indigenous Rights

Recommendation 2

The Government of Canada should continue to work with Russia, whenever possible, through the Arctic Council, in concert with the other member states, in order to conduct scientific and policy research and to address shared environmental, safety, transportation, and human development challenges.

Recommendation 4

The Government of Canada should engage with non-Arctic states that have demonstrated an interest in the Arctic to ensure that future shipping activity is safe and does not have an adverse impact on Arctic communities or the natural environment, and that such activity is conducted in accordance with Canadian policy, law and regulations applicable to the Arctic, as well as the security of Canada’s Arctic.

Recommendation 5

The Government of Canada should continue to engage closely with the other Arctic coastal states, namely Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States, in keeping with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 2008 Ilulissat Declaration, and further to recommendations emanating from the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, toward the peaceful, orderly and mutually agreed resolution of overlaps as regards Canada’s extended continental shelf in the Arctic.

Recommendation 6

The Government of Canada should respect the rights of Indigenous peoples, including those articulated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, when resolving sovereignty disputes and applying the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Recommendation 7

The Government of Canada should provide stable and long-term funding to the Canadian Permanent Participants to the Arctic Council.

Recommendation 8

The next time that the Government of Canada is chair of the Arctic Council, it should co-develop the agenda and priorities for that two-year period with the Canadian Permanent Participants.

Climate Change, Science and Knowledge

Recommendation 22

The Government of Canada should ensure climate change risks are taken into consideration as part of all federally supported infrastructure programs in the North.

Recommendation 25

The Government of Canada should ensure that research bodies under its jurisdiction are engaging in meaningful consultations with Indigenous communities and other people who live and work in the Arctic to ensure that Canada's Arctic research agenda reflects their priorities and perspectives.

Recommendation 26

The Government of Canada should support Indigenous-led initiatives that collect, record and analyze Indigenous traditional knowledge about the Arctic as part of the design, planning and execution of Arctic research.

Recommendation 27

The Government of Canada should work toward the establishment of a Canadian Antarctic research program under Polar Knowledge Canada with the view to enabling substantial scientific research activity to be conducted there.