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.

Vision Statement

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.
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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.
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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.
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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