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Globe and Mail
21 hours ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
The Provincial North is the centrepiece of Canadian nation-building
Ken Coates is the senior fellow for the Provincial North, and Charles Cirtwill is the president and CEO, at the Northern Policy Institute. Not for the first time in Canadian history, the vast sub-Arctic area known as the Provincial North holds the key to the country's economic future. This time, we need to get it right. For generations, Canada and its provinces have capitalized on the resource wealth of the Provincial North, returning surprisingly few benefits and considerable dislocation to the people living there. The country got rich on Northern development and was propelled to sustained prosperity by it in the post-Second World War era. But it was a prosperity enjoyed almost exclusively by regions outside the Provincial North. This approach must be reordered, and quickly. This new phase of development must be North-centred, prioritizing prosperity in the regions most affected, and include comprehensive Indigenous engagement. To a degree that Canadians have long since forgotten, it was this region, stretching from Newfoundland and Labrador to Northern British Columbia, that sustained the commercial fur trade that solidified Britain's hold on northern North America. Much of Canada's current prosperity continues to stem from the Northern parts of its provinces. Newfoundland and Labrador contributes the Voisey's Bay nickel mine and the Churchill Falls Generating Station. Hydropower from Northern Quebec supports the provincial treasury and economy. Ontario has long counted on Northern mining and forestry operations to underpin provincial prosperity, while hydropower and mining projects in Northern Manitoba, uranium mining in Northern Saskatchewan, oil sands and natural-gas extraction in Northern Alberta, and natural gas and forestry operations in Northern B.C. all support their respective provincial economies, and Canada's prosperity at large. The Provincial North's population belies its importance, with fewer than two million Canadians residing in the area. It has a large Indigenous population and, reflecting well-established socio-economic patterns in Canada, many of the poorest communities in the country. Poorly planned projects following the Second World War left serious ecological and social scars across the region, undermining regional confidence in economic planning and the unreliable promises of developers. The Provincial North has rarely held significant political power. The regions are largely subservient to provincial capitals. But the federal election of 2025 transformed the political calculus of the Canadian sub-Arctic. The Liberal Party won seats in Labrador, Northern Quebec, Northern Manitoba and Northern Saskatchewan, and three out of five seats in Northern Ontario. Predictably, the Liberals were shut out in Northern Alberta and Northern B.C., although the election of Conservative Ellis Ross in Skeena-Bulkley Valley in B.C. brought another highly influential Indigenous leader into the House of Commons. The Provincial North, for the first time, has a political presence of real substance. Northern representation in federal cabinet could lead to better outcomes, two territorial premiers say But the authority goes further. Rebecca Chartrand (representing a Northern Manitoba riding) is now the Minister of Northern and Arctic Affairs; Mandy Gull-Masty (representing a Northern Quebec riding) is the Minister of Indigenous Services; Patty Hajdu (who resides in Thunder Bay, Ont.) is Minister of Jobs, and Buckley Belanger (from Northern Saskatchewan) is Secretary of State for Rural Development. Rebecca Alty, from the Northwest Territories, is Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations. Ms. Chartrand and Ms. Hajdu are also in charge of the federal economic development agencies for Northern Canada and Northern Ontario, respectively. The Provincial North has, for now, cabinet authority that matches the region's future economic importance. Proposed development projects in the Provincial North feature prominently in the national conversation. A bitumen pipeline from Alberta to the B.C. coast is the most controversial – and economically important. Extending northern-corridor development through to the coast of Hudson's Bay includes a region-changing proposal for a gas pipeline from Southern Manitoba. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has also pushed for the development of the province's Ring of Fire and defends the idea of a deep-sea port in James Bay. To this list can be added numerous major mining projects, the upgrading of the Hudson Bay Railway to the Port of Churchill, Man., and various road and energy proposals. The 'sleeper' in the development package, championed by Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, is the suggestion that Canada make a commitment to elevating infrastructure in Indigenous communities. Many communities in the Provincial North have substandard internet, water services, fire protection and roads, to say nothing of the most serious shortcoming in the region: housing. While not a traditional megaproject, a collective commitment of this nature could well form part of a 'grand bargain' that secures Indigenous support for resource and infrastructure plans. If Prime Minister Mark Carney's ambitious and still ill-defined plan for national economic renewal has a chance of success, the next decade will clearly be shaped by the development of the Provincial North. The people of the Provincial North should be clear winners in this endeavour, or Canada will be the loser.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Found a Mysterious Barrier in The Ocean That Jellyfish Won't Cross
In the cold darkness deep beneath the waves of the Arctic Ocean, a hidden barrier appears to separate the haves from the have-nots. There, in the midnight zone more than 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) below the surface, the gossamer jellyfish of the subspecies Botrynema brucei ellinorae drifting in the water column have two distinct shapes. Some have hoods topped by a distinctive knob-shaped structure; others are smooth and unknobbed. A new survey of the distributions of these two morphotypes has revealed something very strange at a latitude of 47 degrees north. "Both types occur in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions," explains marine biologist Javier Montenegro of the University of Western Australia, "but specimens without a knob have never been found south of the North Atlantic Drift region, which extends from the Grand Banks off Newfoundland eastwards to north-western Europe." Related: There's an Invisible Line That Animals Don't Cross. Here's Why. At some places in the world, even in the absence of a hard physical barrier, there are lines that separate how animals are distributed. The Wallace Line in the Indonesian archipelago is one; so too are the Lydekker Line and the Weber Line separating the islands of southeast Asia from Australia and Papua New Guinea. On either side of these lines, the types of animals found in comparable niches are quite distinct. Such lines are known as faunal boundaries, and they can be drawn by environmental differences between two regions, physical barriers that have since disappeared over eons as the world changed, ocean currents, and other factors. Because they are not clearly demarcated, faunal barriers like this are hard to spot. This difficulty increases exponentially for the deep ocean, a part of the world that is extremely hostile to the human body. Between crushing pressures, freezing temperatures, and the absence of light, the only way we can explore down there is by remote-controlled robots. Montenegro and his colleagues conducted their survey of jellyfish distribution by the collection of specimens, both from research vessels using nets, and remotely-operated underwater vehicles. They also studied historical observations and photographic records. To their surprise, genetic analysis revealed that the jellyfish with a knob and the jellyfish without a knob belonged to the same genetic lineage. But, while the knobbed jellyfish can be found all over the world, jellyfish without a knob can only be found north of 47 degrees, suggesting a semi-permeable faunal boundary in the North Atlantic Drift region. "The differences in shape, despite strong genetic similarities across specimens, above and below 47 degrees north hint at the existence of an unknown deep-sea bio-geographic barrier in the Atlantic Ocean," Montenegro says. "It could keep specimens without a knob confined to the north while allowing the free transit of specimens with a knob further south, with the knob possibly giving a selective advantage against predators outside the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions." Further research is necessary to determine what creates this invisible barrier keeping the knob-less jellyfish confined to Arctic and sub-Arctic waters, although previous research describes the North Atlantic Drift region as a "transition ecotone with admixture of boreal and subtropical species." This suggests a dividing line between environmental conditions. The finding underscores just how little we know about the deep ocean, and suggests that other such barriers may be scattered throughout the globe. It also suggests that a comprehensive understanding of the life that teems the ocean yet eludes us. "The presence of two specimens with distinctive shapes within a single genetic lineage highlights the need to study more about the biodiversity of gelatinous marine animals," Montenegro says. The research has been published in Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. Related News Leopard Seal Mating Songs Are Eerily Like Our Nursery Rhymes Massive Earthquake Could Strike Canada as Ancient Fault Line Wakes Surprising Study Finds Potatoes Evolved From Tomato Ancestor Solve the daily Crossword
