MARY SIMON

Canada's Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs

In the Inuit culture I come from, we believe that we have inherited our Arctic lands, that we are an integral part of the polar ecosystem, and that the land is our Aboriginal birthright. But we have always promised the land to our children and to their children. And for thousands of years, we have kept our promise to the next generation and left the land and the northern environment basically as we have found it.

I know that other northern Aboriginal peoples--whether they live here in the Yukon, or in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Alaska or northern Europe and Russia--relate to their land and their responsibility to future generations with a similar ethic of sustainability.

Today, in the face of globalization, it is getting harder and harder to keep this promise. Yet we are determined to keep it. And that is why the Arctic peoples are reaching out now, and asking southerners, including their governments, to join them in dealing with the threats facing the Arctic's environment and people.

The concept of sustainable development has been at the heart of the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS). Now there is an Arctic council established to further advance this agenda. The real challenge has been to find unifying themes that could impart meaning to all this thought and work, and to translate these themes into action that will have tangible benefits for the peoples of the circumpolar region.

One such theme that I believe goes a long way to imparting real meaning to the Arctic Council's work on sustainable development, and to bringing that work into the everyday lives of people, is the interests and well-being of the Arctic's children and youth. I am pleased to tell you that Canada has now proposed a program focussed on this theme, for approval by Ministers in September. I know that earlier some of you took part in a workshop on youth, and we look forward to hearing about your discussions tomorrow. I would like to spend the rest of my time on this very important subject. Clearly, hope for a sustainable future for northern communities lies with the Arctic's children and youth. Ultimately it is for them and for future generations that we are making efforts to preserve the earth's resources.

Further, children and youth are the most vulnerable, the least powerful, and the most cherished members of any society. The welfare of children and youth provides the most telling indicator of a society's health and vitality. It is the learning disabilities, the respiratory disorders, the childhood diseases that first herald the advent of environmental degradation. It is the alcohol and drug addictions, the domestic violence, and the teenage suicides that most poignantly signal the deterioration of a society, and threaten the viability and longevity of communities and cultures.

So if the future of the circumpolar Arctic is to be genuinely sustainable, I believe we must make the interests and well-being of its children and youth...