NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area

Tags: social sciences, governance, policy, shipping corridors, marine vessel

Objective(s): To bring together a wide range of participants for the discussion of Inuit and Northern involvement in a governance structure for federal engagement on the Arctic Low Impact Corridors Initiative; and to identify and evaluate governance and management options/priorities for Arctic Shipping Corridors that include Inuit and Northerners.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.4789. The three objectives are to: 1. Bring together a wide range of participants for the discussion of Inuit and Northern involvement in a governance structure for federal engagement on the Arctic Low Impact Corridors Initiative; 2. Advance the conversation about Inuit and Northern involvement in Arctic Shipping Corridors management including legal imperatives and political considerations; and, 3. Identify and evaluate governance and management options/priorities for Arctic Shipping Corridors that include Inuit and Northerners. The methodology the research team will use is a Policy Delphi, which involves three iterative surveys with key experts who have been involved in the Arctic Corridors and Northern Voices study (directly or indirectly) over the past five years. The team will conduct this Policy Delphi, to examine potential approaches for Low Impact Shipping Corridors governance. In its broadest sense, a Policy Delphi is an iterative, group-oriented Idea Generation System (IGS) that aims to uncover both consensus and disagreement on policy issues. This approach permits a diverse group of people, selected for their expertise, to interact anonymously on a defined policy or governance issue and provides a constructive forum and a structured method for correlating views and information pertaining to a policy issue. By design, participants are afforded the freedom to present and challenge alternative viewpoints, and to think independently between iterations. Using Qualtrics online software a first round survey will be administered to the panel and facilitated by trained, Regional Research Coordinators. The survey will require the expert panel to respond to a set of 6 structured closed questions (demographics) and 7 structured, open questions in order to individually share their knowledge and perceptions surrounding Low Impact Shipping Corridors including strengths, weaknesses, management strategies to enhance strengths and reduce weaknesses, potential governance strategies as well as who (organizations, groups, actors) should be involved in Low Impact Shipping Corridors governance and how they should be involved. Also see attached research instrument. In order to refine and scrutinize the interpreted findings from round one the expert panel members will respond to a second (unfacilitated) online survey. This survey will be a summary of all of the expert panel members' answers from Survey Round One (not just their own), organized according to themes that emerge during analysis of Survey Round One. Panel members will be asked if the summary reflects their submissions and if they have any concerns or additions. The expert panel members will be asked to respond to a third and final (unfacilitated) online survey. The survey will require the expert panel to respond to a final set of structured questions where they will be asked to individually evaluate each of the suggested strategies that emerged from Survey Round One and Survey Round Two. They will be asked to rank the strategy suggestions by priority (i.e. first-order and feasibility (as a function of implementability and affordability). For example, a strategy may be highly desirable but not affordable (see Research Instrument document - Evaluation Criteria for Expert Panel Members). Throughout, a multistage analysis will be conducted to interpret and synthesize survey results and establish levels of consensus and points of agreement or disagreement among panel members. Comments will be analyzed and synthesized using constant comparison and thematic coding. This research represents the first empirical study to prioritize strategies for managing marine vessel traffic through a corridors approach, and will provide important information on the current opportunities and challenges for governing marine vessel traffic in the region. Building on existing capacity, five (Inuit) Regional Research Coordinators (Renewable Resource Council (RRC); one southern-based and one in each of Inuvialuit, Nunavut, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut) will join the project team. Likely based in Ottawa, Inuvik, Iqaluit, Kuujjuaq, and Nain respectively these RRCs will be identified by Regional Inuit Associations and Corporations. The RRCs' existing connections to the governance and management board community makes them ideal project champions and liaisons between southern-based (uOttawa) team members and expert panel members (research participants). The RRCs will be trained to 1) raise awareness about the project among potential participants, 2) recruit participants, 3) provide interested participants with an online link, and then facilitate the Round One Survey (with the help of skilled interpreters as needed) with them by phone or video conference software to ensure consistency of survey completion, 4) securely manage data and share it with the uOttawa-based team members, 5) provide feedback and verification of preliminary results and outputs, and 6) assist with results sharing and dissemination to participants and other regional rights holders and stakeholders. All training will be led by Dr. Natalie Carter and conducted via video and teleconference. An expert panel (n=~150) will be established comprising; 1) ~75 select representatives from the four settled land claim regions in Arctic Canada (~ 20 in each region), and 2) ~75 southern-based stakeholders (federal government, academia, industry, non-governmental organizations with Arctic- and shipping-related mandates/foci). A professional technical report outlining the results of the analysis of governance options (panel members' recommendations, strategies, roles, priorities, feasibility) for the Low Impact Shipping Corridors will be produced electronically, and professionally printed, by March 31, 2021. In April 2021, this report will be published on the Arctic Corridors and Northern Voices website reports page https://www.arcticcorridors.ca/reports/ as will a project results (executive) summary. The project results summary will be translated into Inuvialuktun, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut and French in recognition of languages spoken the various regions. The link to these documents (and upon publication a subsequent peer-reviewed manuscript) will be emailed to participating organizations, invited participants, and relevant rights holder and stakeholder organizations in Northwest Territories including but not limited to Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Game Council, Land Administration, Fisheries Joint Management Committee, Wildlife Management Advisory Councils, and the following Government of Northwest Territories Departments: Transportation; Environment and Natural Resources; Executive and Indigenous Affairs; Industry, Tourism and Investment. It will also be widely shared with organizations in Inuit Nunangat and southern-based (see list of organizations above whose representatives will be invited to participate as expert panel members), and with the federal agencies leading the Low Impact Shipping Corridors initiative. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from October 22, 2020 to December 31, 2020.