Canada to open consulates, appoint Arctic ambassador under new foreign policy [Video]

Canada will open consulates in Alaska and Greenland, appoint an Arctic ambassador and continue its boundary negotiations with the United States over the Beaufort Sea. 

Those promises and more are laid out in a new federal document released Friday morning about Canada’s Arctic foreign policy.

The federal government, along with northern premiers and Indigenous organizations, announced the policy in Ottawa.

It follows Canada’s Arctic policy framework announced in 2019, which set out in broad strokes how the federal government plans a “profound change of direction” in its relationship to the North. 

The new policy provides funding over the next five years for Global Affairs Canada. 

Aside from an ambassador and new consulates, the policy promises Canada will initiate Arctic security talks with foreign affairs ministers in other northern countries, and support science and research co-ordination in the Arctic. 

The policy document also promises boundary negotiations with the U.S. over the Beaufort Sea, and finish implementing a boundary agreement between Canada and the Kingdom of Denmark over …