Northerners fear Polar Year funding delays will leave them out in the cold

With International Polar Year less than three months away, northerners are concerned the federal government has yet to decide how it will dole out $150 million promised for research projects.

Hundreds of Arctic and Antarctic research proposals have been submitted for funding under the two-year program that begins in March.

Inuit Circumpolar Council (Canada) president Duane Smith, says that despite two years of discussions with federal officials,manycommunities have not received the resources they need to prepare.

Although northerners were supposed to be active participants in the development of proposals, he says forthemost part that has not happened.

"We aren't a real part of it to date," Smith told CBC News. "It seems like it's an old system where the research[er] would come up, poke and probe you and/or analyze the surroundings without even informing the people what's going on in their own backyards."

Smith is also concerned International Polar Year will focus on science rather than providingtraining and research infrastructurethat would have long-term benefits for the North.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Mary Simon says northerners do not want to be studied by others any longer.

"If there are studies to be done and research to be done … we have to be part of that and be an integral part of it, not just something that other people are studying, so it's very important to create that partnership," Simon said.

Dr. Louis Fortier,scientific director of ArcticNet, a network of more than 300 scientists doing research in the North,says there should still be time to include northerners in the projects.

"From the start the IPY [International Polar Year] program wanted to put faces on climate change and adaptation, so the adaptation part will be strongly funded," Fortier said.

He expects the winning research proposals to be announced in the next few weeks.