CARC Applauds Rescue of the Northern Contaminants Program

The program that has for more than ten years kept northern Canadians and the world aware of toxic threats to Canada’s Arctic looks like it has been rescued from the scrap heap.

The Northern Contaminants Program (NCP) has funnelled more than 25 million dollars over the last five years into Arctic research on contaminants. The program identified how chemicals travel to the Arctic, how they get into the food chain, and has started to identify the risks they pose to northerners.

The NCP had been funded by the four federal departments: Indian Affairs and Northern Development; Health; Environment; and Fisheries and Oceans. After two five-year funding commitments under the program, it was expected to be renewed again this year for another five year term. Those expectations were not met. Money to keep the program running was not set aside in this year’s budget.

The NCP identified how water and air currents
transport contaminants to the Canadian Arctic

Since it was revealed that the NCP was not being renewed, northern indigenous peoples’ organizations and northern groups such as CARC have worked vigorously to get it reinstated. Now it seems that the department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development is prepared to rescue the program.

The commitment was made by Minister Bob Nault in an interview with CBC North, “The NCP will continue as in previous years because it's a high priority of our government and a high priority of our ministry and yes, it did run out, but we're in the process now of reallocating the necessary resources. If we're not going to get any new money from the centre, as they call it, this department will reallocate because that's a priority and we need to protect the north and its environment at the same time as we move forward on developing the economy and the northern infrastructure…”

Minister Nault’s announcement is welcome not just in the national context, but in the international context also. Toxic chemicals know no borders. Contaminants found in the Canadian Arctic are thought to have arrived from as far away as China.

The material collected by the Northern Contaminants Program was vital in helping inform the circumpolar picture on contaminants created by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP). This in turn led to an international agreement to limit production and use of some of the contaminants identified.

Without the Northern Contaminants Program continuing to feed in information on existing and emerging toxic threats in Canada’s Arctic, the work of AMAP would be limited, as would the continuing international efforts to address the toxic threats.

This point was noted by the chair of AMAP, Helgi Jensson, at a recent Arctic Council meeting in Reykjavik, “It is of vital importance that such programs continue to provide AMAP with data. I’m talking of programs such as the NCP in Canada. If there are no programs, it will be difficult to follow trends. I would very much like senior Arctic officials to take that message back to their capitals.”

In this case, it seems that the message has been received. But Minister Nault’s commitment to the program comes too late for a full range of projects to be supported this year. While we applaud his commitment to ensuring that the program receives its previous levels of financial support, we encourage him and the other departments that have historically supported the program to commit to a new five-year program.

This will give researchers the certainty they need to conduct multi-year research and monitoring. It will also give northerners the certainty they need to know that their government is committed to continuing to keep them fully informed of the presence, effects, and risks of Arctic contaminants.