The Centre for the North is an initiative of the Conference Board of Canada that began in 2009. The goal is to bring Aboriginal leaders, businesses, governments, and community advocates together to identify challenges and opportunities, and to decide how those challenges can be met.

We:

• Deliver cutting-edge research based on three foundational themes of thriving communities, economic development and sovereignty and security in the North;
• Examine issues from a Northern perspective, seek to maximize Northern engagement, and prioritize Northern interests;
• Create unique networking opportunities with Northern representatives from government, industry, academia and Aboriginal groups - the only roundtable in Canada to provide this balanced matrix of dialogue;
• Focus on delivering practical solutions to the wide ranging socio-economic challenges facing Canada's Northern communities;
• Cover the territorial North as well as the northern regions of seven provinces;
• Are supported by a roundtable of 53 members that determine and review the Centre's research projects.

Current Research Projects

Already headed into its third year, the Centre for the North has several major research projects underway:

• Assessing and Building Resilience in Canada's North;
• Northern Governance: Impacts and Capacities;
• The Future of Mining in Canada's North;
• Housing in Canada's North;
• Healthy Living in the North;
• Energy Security in Canada's North; and
• Managing the Impacts of Economic Development in Northern Marine Waters.

The Centre's research agenda is based on a strategic interdisciplinary framework, as seen below: