Last week in Churchill the prime minister remarked that "the first and highest priority of our northern strategy is the protection of our Arctic sovereignty. And as I have said many times before, the first principle of sovereignty is to use it or lose it."

We are using it, and we won't lose it. Canadians -Inuit and Dene-have made their lives in the north for millennia. They have been joined by Metis, and other long-term residents from around the globe. All are "using" the north in a way that is meaningful for sovereignty and for the strength of the country, a fact that is evident in the mere existence of territorial and Aboriginal governments and northern organizations.

Social development and improved regional control of governance are formal pillars of the federal government's Northern Strategy, but they tend to slip from view when concerns about Canadian sovereignty surface. Yet securing the basis for healthy northern communities and a productive, well-educated population are fundamental to Canadian sovereignty. These matters are related to our northern foreign policy more directly than some might imagine.

Current northern foreign policy emphasizes the role of science in protecting Canada's interests in the north. Prime Minister Harper's announcement that Cambridge Bay would be the site of the new northern research centre lines up with Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon's emphasis on science in his recent northern foreign policy statement. And it is not hard to draw a line between these measures and, on the one hand, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea requirement for mapping the sea bed, and on the other, accelerating natural resource development in many northern regions, including Canada's northern offshore. As Michael Bravo has argued in Northern Exposure Peoples, Powers and Prospects in Canada's North, northern science --and northern science stations-- have long been an important expression of the Canadian national interest in the North. But where do northerners come in?

Surely, for one thing, northern residents themselves must participate in, and benefit from, research conducted in their homeland. Their capacity to do this would be immensely improved by the presence of a university in the territorial north. Greg Poelzer's study of northern education documents a number of shortcomings in Canada's approach to northern education, concluding "by international standards, Canada lags behind all the circumpolar states in a hugely critical area: it is the only one that has no university in its Arctic region."

Embarrassing as this is, much more than international reputation is at stake, though in the highly symbolic realm of international politics, reputation is not trivial. More importantly, though, improvements in northern education would go a long way towards building the capacity of northerners to participate in shaping the north and to improving the quality of life. Basic education levels must be raised and new opportunities provided for post-secondary learning.

A northern university would improve access to postsecondary education for northern students, extending to them the same choice that virtually all other Canadian students enjoy, to study reasonably close to home. It would create jobs for highly trained professionals, including those well-educated northerners who now struggle to find ways to build careers while they serve their home region. A northern university would encourage research that directly addressed the key policy issues facing northerners, communicating directly with the communities it would serve. It would be well-positioned to develop scientific, engineering and technical research that responded directly to the needs of the rapidly developing northern economy. And of course, far more than a single science station, the northern university would benefit northern society in the way of all universities, by providing the means for the sharing of human knowledge, in all its glorious diversity.

Social well-being must be an integral part of a northern foreign policy framework. If northern science is now a northern policy priority, it should be supported in a way that builds northern institutions that will in turn, enrich and develop northern community life. It is time to build a university north of 60.

Frances Abele is co-editor of Northern Exposure: Peoples, Powers and Prospects in Canada's North, published by the Institute for Research on Public Policy. She is a professor at Carleton University's School of Public Policy and Administration and Academic Director of the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation.