Governor General is urging the Government to build a university for Canada’s Inuit

In a rare vice-regal plunge into policy advocacy, Governor General Michaelle Jean is urging government to build a university for Canada's Inuit.

She suggests to create a university in the Arctic so Inuit can get a degree close to home and benefit from economic activity in their region.

Canada's claims to sovereignty over the North will be, she says, nothing but an "empty shell" unless the area's residents participate in northern development.

Governor General is promoting the idea with government officials and is expected to raise it with the prime minister.

Jean was inspired by an experiment in Norway and plans to use what could be her final year in office -- and her time after leaving Rideau Hall -- to champion the idea.

Jean says an Arctic university could help produce the engineers that mining companies will need. She says industry could be conscripted in the effort, suggesting mining firms, for instance, could be required to devote a slice of their resource revenues to building a new school

Source : The Canadian Press