Senator Mitchell:

There are many special moments in the Senate and in Parliament, but last year's apology and the appearance of Aboriginal leaders in this chamber transcended most of them. It was a very special moment for all of us. It is good to have you here to allow us to revisit that and to follow up to see what progress is being made.

The Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources travelled to the Western Arctic last year. One of our most powerful impressions was the evidence of climate change and its effects on the North.

Could you provide to honourable senators your assessment of the impacts of climate change, evidence of it, and its impact on your communities and people?

Ms. Simon: I am not an expert on these issues, but I can tell you what we have experienced.

One thing that has been very profound is the negative effect of climate change on our traditional knowledge. Many of our elders, our hunters and people on the land — such as Senator Watt and Senator Adams when they are in their communities — are not able to predict weather conditions and seasonal changes as well as they used to.

There have been a number of accidents with people out hunting when they knew the ice would be safe at a given time of year. In fact, it was not because of climate change. These are some of the real effects that our elders are feeling. The elders tell us many times that they have trouble predicting, in terms of their traditional knowledge, how the seasons will evolve.

The other one is more related to the western Arctic, where you might have visited — I am not sure. It is the erosion of the coast. Places like Tuktoyaktuk, which is in the western Arctic, are finding that due to the extreme weather conditions and extreme storms, the coastal area is eroding quite a bit. In fact, some of the sea water is starting to go into people's backyards because erosion is taking place.

We have a community in Nunavik, where Charlie Watt and I come from, where there are probably about 600 to 800 people. They live in a sort of valley. Because of the permafrost melting, the community is sinking. There have been discussions about relocating that community to another site, which will cost an enormous amount of money. It is happening. These are real-life situations that people are experiencing.

There are also things like the ultraviolet rays from the sun, which are much stronger. They are present everywhere else, but in the Arctic we feel them much more because people are out on the land a lot. Years ago when I was growing up, we did not need sunscreen. People became brown and dark, but we never needed sunscreen. Now hunters cannot go out without sunscreen; they break out in sores because the sun is so strong as it reflects off the sea ice. These are real-life issues that we are facing.

Then there is the more insidious type of change, which is pollution, the transboundary pollutants that are infiltrating the food chain we depend on for our food source. The contaminant levels in these animals have been much higher than the accepted levels that are supposed to be there in order not to damage your body; these levels are way beyond those levels.

Those types of changes we have no real control over. That is why we work so hard in the international community to have nation states like Canada to deal with the source of the problem. It must be dealt with at the source. Band-aid remedies and adaptation remedies will not change the way the world's climate is changing. The source of the problem needs to be dealt with, and those are the greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants that are spewing into the atmosphere. Those issues have to be addressed. We are trying to encourage countries like Canada to take this problem much more seriously than they have.

Senator Mitchell: What is your impression, more specifically, of what Canada is doing or not doing to address climate change? Are you hopeful that there is some initiative there?

Ms. Simon: I do not know what Canada is doing. I know a lot of negotiations are going on right now leading up to the Copenhagen conference — I think it is COP 12. I am not sure which number it is, but it is one of the COP conferences that will take place in Copenhagen. I know Canada is involved in those negotiations, but I do not know what is being negotiated.

We would like to find out. We want to be part of those discussions, but up to now we have not been successful in participating. We have been invited to participate in the conference itself, but the negotiations are over by the time these conferences take place.

I realize that more and more. I went with the Minister of Environment to Bali over a year ago. The negotiations had been pretty much completed by the time we arrived there. I think it is important to be involved in the lead-up to these agreements.

Senator Mitchell: You have not been consulted on that process?

Ms. Simon: Not the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, no.

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