Most northern communities have few economic development options other than responsible development of their natural resources; an improved geoscience knowledge base is required to catalyze new private sector investment and deliver opportunities to northerners. In order to maximize the benefit to communities, the capacity of their citizens to participate in these opportunities must be improved to through an increased understanding of the exploration sector, and development of marketable skills.

The Northern Resources Development Program will:

• Create and effectively market new, comprehensive, regional mineral and energy geoscience products (regional databases, maps, reports) to stimulate private sector investment in exploration and development;
• Contribute to the building of the knowledge, skills and capacities needed by northerners to meaningfully guide and participate in this development by working with communities and agencies responsible for Economic Development, and;
• Contribute to the creation of employment opportunities and consequently improved quality of life in the communities of the North by influencing the application of the new northern geoscience knowledge framework by the private sector for the identification of new energy and mineral resources.

Program Partnerships:

The NRD Program will be co-delivered with leading exploration companies, universities as well as relevant other government departments, to ensure integration with Canada's Innovation System. NRD projects have established opportunistic and mutually beneficial partnerships with mineral and petroleum exploration companies that are relevant to specific project outputs. This interaction will ensure that our work is focused and undertaken using the most appropriate and current methods. Access to leading edge academic research and facilities will be realized through project-level partnerships with universities across the country that support and co-supervise students undertaking thesis research. Partnerships with the provincial and/or territorial and other Federal government geoscience agencies, where opportunities to share the risks and rewards of project delivery, have been identified. The community outreach component of the Program that is critical to its success is thoroughly integrated with the collage of existing educational networks across Canada.

Project Interaction:

Several NRD technical projects are geographically dispersed across the North (see map), and are focused on areas of elevated mineral or energy resource potential where development is impeded by geoscience knowledge infrastructure that is not sufficient to guide exploration. The minerals and energy-focused projects will share common expertise, data management, marketing frameworks and best practices across projects. A thematic initiative to apply remote sensing technologies to resource identification and assessment will function across all technical projects. Relevant outputs of all projects, as well as extant geological information, will be delivered via locally appropriate mechanisms to the northern public through a pan-NRD project.

Program Delivery:

Through a combination of synthesizing current knowledge, and targeted acquisition of new data to create new knowledge, technical projects will release appropriate map and information products in client-relevant formats from common data sources. This new geoscience knowledge framework will be marketed to the full spectrum of clients at local and national fora, and via the Internet, as well as through personal channels.

Program Manager:

David J. Scott