VANCOUVER (CUP)--Armed with rifles from the Second World War and clad in red sweatshirts and red baseball caps, the Canadian Rangers patrol the 3.4 million square kilometres of the Arctic. Although the main duty of this part-time reserve force is surveillance of the Arctic, the Rangers do everything from collecting data to training other members of the Canadian Forces to survive the Arctic winters.

“Like I always say [...] we are the eyes and ears of the North for Canada,” said Master Corporal Pitseolak Alainga, who has been a Canadian Ranger in Iqaluit, Nunavut, for 16 years.

As the Arctic ice melts, the role of the Canadian Rangers is changing. With the opening of the Northwest Passage and the government’s new commitment to northern sovereignty and defending the Arctic border, the Canadian Rangers have a mission-- whether they’re equipped for it or not

The eyes and ears of the north

Alainga joined the Canadian Rangers when he was 23.

“My grandfather and my father, my uncles and other relatives were in the Rangers,” he said. “I got involved when some elders were trying to expand the Rangers here in Iqaluit.”

The Canadian Rangers were formally established as a branch of the Canadian Forces on May 23, 1947, when the government was trying to cut back on military spending.

“In the 1940s, when budgets were constrained, the military was searching for some way to have a presence [in the Arctic],” said Whitney Lackenbauer, history professor at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ont.

“It seemed like a great idea to give rifles and at that time just arm bands to the locals in hopes that if the Soviets came and somebody tried to set up little lodgements in the North, these Rangers would hold them off until the regular force came.”

This unconventional volunteer militia now has 4,000 members in 165 communities across the North. The Rangers are mostly Inuit who have extensive knowledge of Arctic geography, navigation and survival.

While the activities of Rangers vary greatly, depending on individual Patrol Units, each part-time volunteer shares the mandate to “provide a military presence in those sparsely settled northern, coastal and isolated areas of Canada that cannot conveniently or economically be provided for by other components of the Canadian Forces.”

Alainga said the Rangers have a big responsibility.

“We do quite a few things,” said Alainga. “We do training on some of the basic first aid and basic search and rescue, but mainly what we do is [...] teach these military guys how to try to survive up here in the Arctic where most of the time it’s really cold in the winter and how to build igloos and how to survive some blizzards.”

“This is an incredible success story for the Canadian Forces because rather than going in and trying to militarize Northern communities in traditional ways--addressing rigid hierarchies trying to assimilate everybody into common patterns of behaviour, which is required for regular forces--instead they’ve adopted a very flexible approach rooted in accommodation and acceptance of northern practices,” he said.

Whether the Rangers’ northern practices will be enough to protect Canada in the future is still unknown.

Treading on thin ice

Five years ago, the U.S. Navy commissioned a report on the ice in the Northwest Passage, which predicted that the area would be free of ice during the summer months between 2006 and 2011.

Michael Byers, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia, said he’s concerned about how this significant change will affect security in the Arctic.

“I’m fairly confident that in the summer months the ice will be--if not gone--sufficiently soft and thin to allow commercial shipping in the passage within the next decade or two,” said Byers. “And that has pretty serious implications for [...] security, not just in regards to terrorism, but also in regards to illegal immigration. I’m seriously worried that the Canadian public does not understand the magnitude of what’s happening.”

The earth’s average surface temperature has risen 0.6°C since the 1900s. The effects of the warmer weather are most apparent in the Arctic region, which is becoming smaller as thousands of kilometres of ice melt each year.

According to Byers, it is only a matter of time before a shipping company takes advantage of the trade route that is opening up as the seasons go by.

“It’s inevitable; it could happen this week,” he said. “There are lots of trap steamers and rusted-out tanks sailing around the world owned by these fly-by-night companies and they’re looking at the Northwest Passage and seeing a shortcut that’s 7,000 kilometres long. That’s a huge amount of money saved in terms of fuel costs, Panama Canal transit fees and time.”

Although the opening up of the Northwest Passage has great potential for shipping, oil and gas exploration, and mining, it also creates security concerns, something the government is beginning to address.

“The twin impacts of climate change and the recognition of the resource wealth of the North really has started politicians from Martin to Harper saying that we have to be ready to defend our Arctic,” said Rob Huebert, political science professor at the University of Calgary.

“And by ‘defend’ they mean we have to have a policy, we have to know what’s happening in the Arctic and we have to be able to respond to what’s going on.”

The government has been talking, but Huebert is concerned that this is all they have been doing.

“I will give [former prime minister Paul] Martin credit for initiating the discourse and Harper has continued the discussions, but so far we haven’t seen any real action,” he said. “One becomes a little bit jaded about the possibility of seeing if change will ever in fact come in.”

Byers agreed that the government hasn’t been doing enough to protect our northern border.

“We are the second-largest country on earth and 40 per cent of this country is Arctic. We don’t have the capacity to exert a presence in most of the country for most of the year,” said Byers. Canada has been able to get away with this because of the protection offered by the ice, he said.

“The ice has always provided an impenetrable barrier to foreign vessels and people wanting to enter the North. But with the ice melting, we’re losing that natural defence to other interests.”

We stand on guard for thee

In a speech delivered Aug. 12, 2006 in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Prime Minister Stephen Harper emphasized the government’s commitment to northern sovereignty and the northernmost branch of the Canadian Military.

“You can’t defend Arctic sovereignty with words alone. It takes a Canadian presence on the ground, in the air and on the sea and a government that is internationally recognized for delivering on its commitments,” Harper said.

“We are determined to expand the Army’s presence in the North by establishing a new Arctic training centre and revitalizing the Canadian Rangers.”

This revitalization includes expanding the Rangers’ numbers to 4,800 by 2008, something that concerns Lackenbauer.

“I think the government is treading on very thin ice with this,” he said. “First of all, I think they’re making promises and commitments that they can’t hope to keep. Every community along the Northwest Passage that can sustain a Ranger Patrol already has one. So the prospects of expanding it are slim to none.

Alainga said he sees some positive aspects in the government’s new commitment to Northern sovereignty--though he’s not sure how it will affect him.

He added that only certain areas would be affected by the increased accessibility of the Northwest Passage.

“In a few places there’s going to be a lot of jobs or a lot of activities going on and this is where we Canadian Rangers start helping protect sovereignty,” he said.