BR Canada North Pole – CP

Source: The Canadian Press – Broadcast wire
Jul 22, 2016 

HALIFAX – Canada’s largest icebreaker is scheduled to leave Halifax today for a critical expedition to the North Pole.

It’s the final mission in the High Arctic before Canada makes an official claim to the strategically important area.

The Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St-Laurent will carry a team of international scientists and high-tech gear for mapping the ocean floor.

The data will be used to define the outer limits of Canada’s continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean.

A submission is expected to be presented to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in 2018.

Federal Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc says the work can’t be overstated.

LeBlanc says it’s a fundamental exercise in sovereignty and to establish Canada’s last maritime boundary line.

Last August, Russia issued a revised submission for its claim to 1.2 million square kilometres of the Arctic shelf.

—

ked

(The Canadian Press)

INDEX: TRANSPORT ENVIRONMENT NATIONAL POLITICS