|
|
Established in 1991 as the lead agency in the area of polar
research, the Canadian Polar Commission has responsibility for: monitoring, promoting,
and disseminating knowledge of the polar regions; contributing to public awareness
of the importance of polar science to Canada; enhancing Canada's international
profile as a circumpolar nation; and recommending polar science policy direction
to government.
In carrying out its mandate, the Commission
hosts conferences and workshops, publishes information on subjects of relevance
to polar research, and works closely with other governmental and non-governmental
agencies to promote and support Canadian study of the polar regions.
Strategic Roadmap for 2002-2005
Canadian
Polar Commission Act
Tom Hutchinson
Tom Hutchinson (BSc, Manchester); Ph. D., Sheffield) is Professor Emeritus in the Environmental & Resource Studies Program at Trent University. A plant ecologist, he has worked extensively in the boreal forest and tundra on basic northern ecology and ecosystem responses to stress from oil spills, heavy metals, and air pollution. He chaired the joint Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council – Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Northern Task Force. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a winner of the Royal Society’s Miroslaw Romanowski medal.
François Trudel
François Trudel is a graduate of Université Laval (M.A.) and The University of Connecticut (Ph.D.). A professor in Laval’s department of anthropology since 1975, his teaching, research, and publications focus on the Inuit, of Nunavik and Nunavut, where he continues to undertake funded historical and ethnographic research. He was an active member of the former-GÉTIC (Groupe d'études inuites et circumpolaires) and was recently recent director of CIÉRA (Centre interuniversitaire d'études et de recherches autochtones), a board member of ACUNS (Canadian Association of Universities for Northern Studies, a founding member of IPSSAS (International Ph.D. School for Studies of Arctic Societies) for which he organized the Iqaluit seminar in, 2003, and representative of Université Laval on the Council of the University of the Arctic.
Jocelyn Barrett
Jocelyn
Barrett holds a BCL and an LL.B. from McGill University. She grew up in Kuujjuaq,
where she is currently legal advisor as well as political attaché to President
of the Makivik Corporation. She has worked extensively in community affairs, professionally
and as a volunteer. A member of the Québec Bar Association Committee on
the Law and Aboriginal Peoples, she is also corporate secretary of Société
Kuujjuamiut Inc. Ms Barrett is former secretary of the Kuujjuaq Education Committee.
E-mail
Piers McDonald
Piers
McDonald was Yukon government leader from fall 1996 to spring 2000. Among Government
accomplishments under his leadership were the development of strategies in the
areas of trade and investment, energy, forests, and restorative justice, as well
as major advances in land claims negotiations and a new emphasis on intergovernmental
circumpolar relations. He spent 18 years as a Member of the Yukon Legislative
Assembly, serving as Minister of Education, of Community and Transportation Services,
and of Finance, as well as Leader of the Official Opposition. Based in Whitehorse,
he now works as a consultant in community and economic development and First Nations
relations, and as an urban developer.
E-mail
Gordon Miles
Gordon
Miles has had a thirty-year management career in the private and public sectors,
and currently works in the field of Inuit community economic development. He was
the first General Manager of the Aarruja Development Corporation, an Inuit owned
company in Clyde River, Nunavut. He works as Manager of Business Services for
the Kakivak Corporation, which provides guidance and financial assistance to Inuit-owned
small businesses in the Baffin region of Nunavut. Mr Miles has extensive experience
as a community volunteer, and is currently treasurer of the Iqaluit Centennial
Library Board.
E-mail
Ron Macnab
Ron Macnab graduated from Laurentian University with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and spent three years as a junior officer in the Royal Canadian Navy. Following his naval service, he studied Physics and Oceanography at Dalhousie University where he obtained Bachelor and Master of Science degrees. After two years with the Defence Research Board of Canada where he did research on underwater acoustics, he joined the Bedford Institute of Oceanography and participated in a variety of programs: ocean mapping, geophysical data compilations, tectonic investigations, and analyses concerning the implementation of Article 76 of UNCLOS. His polar field experience includes missions for undertaking marine surveys and oceanographic sampling in Canada's eastern and western Arctic. He retired from the Geological Survey of Canada in 2002, and remains active in several international initiatives related to Polar Geoscience, to the Law of the Sea, and to Ocean Mapping.
Susan Rowley
Susan Rowley obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and a B.A. from the University of Toronto. She is Curator of Public Archaeology at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology and assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, where she teaches and supervises graduate and undergraduate students in archaeology and museum anthropology. She has held a Post-doctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution and an Assistant Professorship at the University of Alberta. Susan has worked extensively with Inuit elders on historical and archaeological research in Nunavut, and since the mid 1980s has run archaeology field schools for young Inuit there.
Steven Bigras
Steven Bigras joined the Canadian Polar Commission in August of 1999 as its first
Executive Director. A 20 year veteran of the federal government Mr. Bigras previously
worked for the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) as
a senior manager, specializing in circumpolar and scientific affairs, and economic
development.
While with DIAND, Mr. Bigras was responsible for the development
and management of national programs in support of northern science and technology.
As a manager of economic development programs, he worked closely with Aboriginal
businesses and communities to design and implement socio-economic policies and
initiatives.
A graduate of Carleton University and the University of Ottawa,
Mr. Bigras worked for 10 years as a hydrologist with Environment Canada’s
National Hydrology Research Institute. In addition to managing national and regional
river ice and lake regime studies in the western Arctic, he authored numerous
papers on hydrological processes in Arctic and sub-Arctic ecosystems.
bigrass@polarcom.gc.ca
Elaine Anderson
Indigenous to Labrador, Elaine Anderson came from Goose Bay
to work with the Canadian Polar Commission in 1995.
After obtaining a Bachelor's degree in English and Sociology from Memorial University
of Newfoundland, Elaine worked with the Labrador Inuit Association (LIA) as an
Education Counsellor, and with the Labrador Inuit Health Commission, LIA's affiliate,
as a Health Careers liaison. Through these positions, Elaine has worked alongside
LIA's departments throughout Labrador's north coast communities.
In addition to her work at the CPC, Ms. Anderson's life experience, work with
various community groups in Labrador, and work with the Royal Commission on Aboriginal
Peoples' Research Directorate has given her a first hand understanding of Northern
issues.
andersone@polarcom.gc.ca
Jean-Marie
Beaulieu
Jean-Marie Beaulieu, the Commission's Polar Science Manager,
holds graduate degrees in Northern Studies from McGill University and in Environmental
Studies from York University. As a geographer and ecologist, his research drew
on his extensive northern experience, focussing on the role of Inuit knowledge
in northern wildlife management. His broad research interests are well suited
to his current responsabilities, which include developing an assessment program
to determine the state of Canadian polar research and knowledge.
beaulieuj@polarcom.gc.ca
John Bennett
John Bennett studied Geography at the University of Western
Ontario and Canadian Studies at Carleton University.
He spent nine years working for the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, five as editor
of Inuktitut Magazine (1989-1993).
He worked as an independent researcher, writer, and editor specializing in the
North from 1994 until 2001, when he was invited to join the staff of the Canadian
Polar Commission.
bennettj@polarcom.gc.ca |