RESOLUTE BAY, Nunavut - It's one of the most celebrated and mythic areas on the Arctic map, but in the parlance of the Canadian military the Northwest Passage is no more.
"We're calling it the Canadian Internal Waters now," says Lt.-Col. Drew Artus, the chief of staff for Joint Task Force North, whose mandate includes protecting Canadian sovereignty over the vast area north of the 60th parallel.
"That's the guidance that we received. ... Sovereignty and the security of Canada and Canada's lands are important to (the government), and I guess that's part of their mandate to exercise authority, if you will, over what they believe is theirs."
Canada is at odds with much of the world over the status of the fabled waters that form the northern route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Basing its claim partly on the fact that Inuit have lived on the waters, when iced, since time immemorial, Canada says the passage is an internal strait.
Most major maritime powers call it an international passageway.
At stake is the right for Canada to overlay those waters with its own rules and regulations, which would mean the right to refuse entry to vessels that don't conform to certain environmental and construction standards.
That is especially worrisome in the Arctic's fragile ecosystem, where pollution or fuel spills could cause severe and long-lasting damage.
Michael Byers, a University of British Columbia professor who holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law, called the name change "cute and imaginative."
"But it would be like deciding that we're not going to call the United States the United States because we have a dispute over softwood lumber. It has no real significance apart from (showing) the seriousness of your position."
Several members of the Northern Forces said the direction to omit references to "Northwest Passage" came down their chain of command from Foreign Affairs in January.
However, it's unclear whether the direction came before or after the Conservative victory under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who made Arctic sovereignty an election priority.
A Foreign Affairs spokesman said Saturday he was "not aware" of the change.
The Northwest Passage was long the fantasy of mariners intent on discovering a shorter commercial route to the spices and silks of the Orient.
Martin Frobisher set sail for its ice-choked waters in 1578, opening a chapter of exploration history fraught with tales of daring and disaster.
Discovery of the passage became a matter of imperial pride for England.
But it was not until 1854 that Robert Mclure, who set off to search for traces of the failed Franklin expedition, made the first traverse through the passage, although much of it was by sledge.
A Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, completed the first maritime crossing in 1906. The RCMP vessel St. Roch became the first to sail through the passage in both directions in 1944.
Even today, little more than 100 ships have squeezed through the ice in its broad sounds and narrow channels, although a warming climate and melting ice have led a growing number of enthusiasts in sailboats to mount attempts every summer.
That same weather phenomenon has added new urgency to Canada's concerns over its ownership of the passage. Predictive climate models show the Arctic becoming entirely free of summer ice between 2050 and 2100.
However, recent research suggests that as the ice pack retreats from the western mouth of the passage it could become ice-free and open to shipping as soon as 2015.
The real problem confronting Canada, says Byers, is that the country remains unprepared to defend the passage against incursions by rogue vessels which, if allowed to cross through unopposed, could destroy the internal-waters claim.
More than 1,500 part-time reservists called Canadian Rangers patrol the Arctic and maintain a federal presence that bolsters the country's sovereignty claims.
But the Rangers, equipped with Second World War-era rifles and not trained for combat, aren't prepared to deal with a threat to the passage, Byers says.
"If a ship tried to go through the Northwest Passage without Canada's permission, you wouldn't send Rangers out to stop it," he says.
"You'd want to send a Cormorant helicopter with a handful of JTF2 guys who would rappel down on the deck and forcibly take control of the vessel."
Byers has recommended that during summer months Canada position a helicopter in the Nunavut community of Resolute Bay, which lies at approximately the mid-point of the passage.
It could provide a security presence, but also be available for search and rescue work as traffic through the Arctic waters increases.
"We have these helicopters on the east and west coasts of Canada," he says.
"But our northern coastline is by far our longest coastline. It's becoming increasingly busy and we haven't yet taken the inevitable step of putting a search-and-rescue helicopter on that third coast."
nvanderklippe@globaltv.com
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