Table of Contents
- Coordination and Administration of the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP)
- Facilitation of International Action Related to the Long-range Transport of Contaminants into the Arctic
- Council of Yukon First Nations Participation in the Northern Contaminants Program
- Dene Nation Participation in the Northern Contaminants Program
- ITK National Coordination
- Inuit Circumpolar Council – Canada Activities in Support of Circumpolar and Global Contaminant Instruments and Activities
Coordination and Administration of the Northern Contaminants Program, 2017-2018
Project leader(s):
Sarah Kalhok Bourque, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC)
Team:
Northern Contaminants Program Management Committee
Northern Contaminants Program Secretariat
Four Northern Indigenous Partner Organizations
Regional Contaminants Committees
Arctic Institute of North America – (Coordinators of the ASTIS database)
University of Waterloo – (Coordinators of the Polar Data Catalogue)
ECC/MOECC – (Coordinators of the NCP-AMAP QAQC Interlaboratory Study)
Funds:
$540,295
Plain language summary
The Northern Contaminants Program (NCP) engages Northerners and scientists in research, monitoring, and related assessment, communications, and policy initiatives. It is managed through a partnership that includes federal, territorial and northern regional/Indigenous governments, Indigenous organizations, and other key Arctic research programs. The secretariat function for the NCP is carried out by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. The NCP Secretariat provides the administrative, financial, and logistical support and coordination required to deliver the NCP. This includes developing and implementing strategic and operational plans for the NCP under the direction of the NCP Management Committee. Highlights for 2017-2018 will include: managing the funding and reporting requirements for current funding recipients; coordinating the 2018/19 Call for Proposals, including blueprint revisions and comprehensive review process; planning and delivering the NCP’s 25th anniversary Results Workshop; facilitating follow-up initiatives to the Fall 2016 Human Health Monitoring and Risk Communications Workshop; developing and publishing the annual Synopsis of Research; releasing the CACAR 2017 State of Knowledge and Regional Highlights report, the CACAR 2017 Human Health Report, and summaries of core monitoring topics (2); further refinements and regular updates to the NCP website and other communications, including expanding into a social media presence; facilitating significant updates to the NCPOperational Management Guide, Guidelines for Responsible Research, and annual updates to the NCP Strategic Plan; implementing the joint NCP/NGMP/POLAR Data Management Principles and Guidelines for Polar Research and Monitoring in Canada; exploring opportunities for new partnerships with respect to enhancing/expanding community-based monitoring and community research advisors; and implementing actions arising from the spring and fall NCP Management Committee meetings.
International Action to Reduce the Long-range Transport of Contaminants to the Arctic
Project leader(s):
Sarah Kalhok Bourque and Jason Stow, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC)
Team:
Lars-Otto Reiersen, Simon Wilson, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme
Tom Sheldon and Eva Kruemmel, Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada
Tom Harner, Atmospheric Science and Technology, Environment and Climate Change Canada
Funds:
$200,000
Plain language summary
Since the majority of contaminants found in the Arctic environment originate from countries other than Canada, the issue must be dealt with on an international scale. For this reason, the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP) and its partners engage in international activities aimed at regulating contaminants that are subject to long-range transport. These efforts have already led to several international agreements, including the global Stockholm Convention on POPs (2004) and the Minamata Convention on Mercury (2013). The NCP’s primary contribution to these agreements has been the provision of scientific data, information and expertise on contaminants in Canada’s North and communication about the impacts they are having on Northerners and wildlife. The NCP also represents Canada’s primary contribution to the Arctic Council’s Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), which is a highly respected source of circumpolar scientific assessments related to the Arctic environment. Through AMAP, NCP data and information are put into a circumpolar context and used to inform policy decisions taken by the influential Arctic Council.
With global agreements now in place to control POPs and mercury, the NCP and its partners must now focus on ensuring these agreements are effectively implemented. The NCP is working closely with its partners to ensure that NCP results and expertise are used to evaluate the effectiveness of global regulation at reducing Arctic pollution, and to help evaluate chemicals of emerging concern for potential inclusion in the Stockholm Convention. Both the Stockholm Convention on POPs and Minamata Convention on Mercury recognize the Arctic as an important indicator of global long-range pollution, and consider data and information from the Arctic to be critical for assessing the impacts of global pollutants. The NCP, with its long history of contaminants monitoring and research in the Arctic is a major contributor of this information.
Council of Yukon First Nations Participation in the Northern Contaminants Program
Project leader(s):
James MacDonald, Council of Yukon First Nations (CYFN)
Team:
Yukon Contaminants Committee, Yukon First Nations
Funds:
$55,200
Plain language summary
The Northern Contaminants Program (NCP) was established in 1991 in response to concerns about human exposure to elevated levels of contaminants in fish and wildlife species that make up the traditional diets of northern Indigenous peoples.
Under NCP Phase I, research was conducted to determine the levels, geographic extent and source of contaminants that were entering the north. Results from NCP I were published in the 1997 Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report (CACAR). NCP II began in 1998 and focused on the impacts and risks to human health that may result from current levels of contamination in key Arctic food species. The results of NCP II have been published in CACAR II.
The current focus of the program is to address high priority areas, such as communities where people are being exposed to contaminant levels of concern to health authorities. Although the Yukon Territory is not a high priority area, the Council of Yukon First Nations (CYFN) continues to provide input and participate as a member of the national management committee, participate as a member of the Yukon Contaminant Committee (YCC) and monitor the Arctic Council’s Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). NCP program objectives, structures, strategies and research are communicated back to all Yukon communities, including CYFN members and the leadership board where appropriate.
Dene Nation Participation in the Northern Contaminants Program
Project leader(s):
Trevor Teed, Director, Lands and Environment (Dene Nation)
Team:
1. National Chief Bill Erasmus, Dene Nation and AFN Regional Chief
2. Trevor Teed, Director Lands and Environment, Dene National/AFN Regional Office
3. Vacant Position, Coordinator Lands and Environment, Dene National/AFN Regional Office
Funds:
$63,346
Plain language summary
Dene Nation proposes to work on the following:
- Operate an Environment Committee
- Update its website & social media site (Facebook).
- Attend meetings, teleconferences & workshops for the NCP & NWT RCC
- Engage with NCP funded projects in Denendeh
- Report to the Dene Leadership & the National Assembly
The work will explain what is the NCP, what projects it funds in the NWT, why the projects are important, what projects Dene would like to see funded, who does the work funded by the NCP & the role of Dene Nation. It will also address food security as related to contaminant issues.
The work will be conducted by the Land and Environment Department of the Dene Nation as directed by the Environment Committee, whose members are from the communities & appointed by the regions, using Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), and with input from the Elders Committee, traditional hunters, gatherers, fishers and trappers. It is expected that members of the committee will have ties to local or regional land and environment bodies.
Community and regional engagement with Dene Nation will be enhance with presentations to the Assembly and Leadership and with direction from the committee and all information will be posted on the website. All northerners will be aware of funded activities and the results.
Dene Nation believes that engagement about contaminants between its National Office, its communities, researchers, GNWT and the Government of Canada is initially best served by participation in workshops. A preplanning workshop, hosted by Dene Nation, involving the Aboriginal Partners of the NWTRCC to provide advice to the Dene Nation with the agenda for a 2018-19 Dene Nation hosted workshop for its communities where the NCP and its NWT projects will be discussed and the communities could identify studies they would like to take place in their areas.
ITK National Coordination
Project leader(s):
Eric Loring¸ Inuit Tapriit Kanatami (ITK)
Team:
John Cheechoo (Director)
Department of Environment and Wildlife
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
Dr. Scot Nickels (Director)
Inuit Qaujisarvingat: Inuit Knowledge Centre (IKC)
Anna Fowler, (Director)
Department of Health and Social Development (DHSD)
Tom Sheldon: Inuit Circumpolar Council-Canada
Nunavut Environment Contaminants Committee
NWT Regional Contaminants Committee
Nunatsiavut Government Research Advisory Committee (NGRAC)
Nunavik Nutrition and Health Committee (NNHC)
Funds:
$150,000
Plain language summary
The Department of Environment and Wildlife will provide enhanced leadership and advocacy on a national level in regard to environment and wildlife research issues affecting Inuit Nunangat. This proposal will provide details on the funding and deliverables required for Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) to participate with federal departments and territorial agencies in the NCP. It allows ITK to assess information and research generated by the program and to play an informed role in influencing present and future NCP management priorities, and to set national and international priorities. The involvement of ITK helps ensure that Inuit voices from the community and regions are heard and incorporated into NCP and other related Arctic research programs. ITK will help advocate and communicate Inuit needs and interest into NCP research and ensure that research communication generated from the program is done with an Inuit lens and with Inuit involvement. When possible ITK will also work towards furthering NCP research to incorporate and utilize Inuit knowledge both at the research stage and in the policy making process. ITK will serve to provide insights into how Inuit knowledge can best engage with scientific knowledge to advance appropriate and sustainable practices, strategies and policies for the NCP.
Participation in the NCP helps ITK contextualize research information back to Inuit regions and communities. ITK departments and their working committees provide innovated and effective routes for communicating information back to Inuit and Northerners. For instance through the; Public Health Officials, Mental Wellness Committees, National Inuit Health Committees, Food Security and Early Childhood development, Wildlife groups and Inuit regional communication teams. This allows for contaminant messaging to be more focused, directed, and placed within greater health and environment context.
The ITK will lead efforts to ensure Inuit and their knowledge innovative advance education, science and policy within a Canadian and global context. ITK working with its partners will serve to foster knowledge exchange and capacity, improve knowledge for arctic research, and support knowledge development in key NCP policy areas. ITK will help to create and contribute knowledge for better decision making, which will lead to sustainable economy, better self-governance and improved health for Inuit communities as well as provide Inuit-specific knowledge and perspective for a broader Canadian and global audience.
Inuit Circumpolar Council – Canada Activities in Support of Circumpolar and Global Contaminant Instruments and Activities: a Renewed Focus on Both Prevention and Reaction
Project leader(s):
Tom Sheldon, Inuit Circumpolar Council – Canadaç
Team:
Selma Ford, Inuit Circumpolar Council - Canada
Pitsey Moss-Davies, Inuit Circumpolar Council - Canada
Eva Kruemmel, Ph.D. , ScienTissiME
Stephanie Meakin, Inuit Circumpolar Council - Canada
Funds:
$158,125
Plain language summary
The Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) is a non-governmental, not-for profit organization representing circumpolar Inuit, and Canadian Inuit internationally. Among ICC’s principle goals are the promotion of Inuit rights and interests on an international level and the development and encouragement of long-term policies that safeguard the Arctic environment. Inuit have been directly and indirectly impacted by long-range transported contaminants, which bioaccumulate in the Arctic ecosystem and have led to very high concentrations in some Inuit populations. These exposures have been shown to have potential impacts on the health and well-being of communities and that of the wildlife populations. This proposal is asking the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP) for funding support for ICC Canada’s contaminant related work on the national, circumpolar and international stage. ICC Canada’s work includes involvement in contaminant research, representation of Inuit viewpoints and interests nationally (e.g. at the NCP), in the circumpolar Arctic (at AMAP and other Arctic Council working groups), and internationally (within UNEP, e.g. the Stockholm Convention, the POPs Review Committee, and the Minamata Convention on Mercury among other fora). ICC Canada’s objective is to ensure that scientific (contaminant) research in the Arctic is addressing Inuit needs and is done with proper Inuit support and involvement. Historically, ICC’s work (and that of the broader contaminants community) has tended to be reactive in nature, focusing on chemicals that have already been detected in the Arctic environment. This year, ICC is proposing to broaden its scope of work to begin to include the exploration of proactive prevention of the introduction of chemicals that have the potential to pollute the Arctic. Although the work will be preliminary in nature, it builds on gaps identified by AMAP and is intended to inform significant future proactive work in relation to contaminants at the source, the Arctic and Inuit. This new stream of work also aligns with the United Nations 2017 Environmental Assembly (UNEA 2017) theme on opportunities for achieving a pollution free planet.