Northern Contaminants Program

The Northern Contaminants Program (NCP) was established in 1991 in response to concerns about human exposure to elevated levels of contaminants in wildlife species that are important to the traditional diets of northern Aboriginal peoples. Early studies found a wide variety of substances, many of which had no Arctic or Canadian sources, but which were, nevertheless, reaching unexpectedly high levels in the Arctic ecosystem.

The current focus of the Northern Contaminants Program is to address high priority issues in communities where people are being exposed to contaminant levels of concern to health authorities. The NCP is to address these issues through: conducting research and monitoring to enable the provision of sound dietary advice; meeting Canada’s monitoring obligations under international agreements (LRTAP protocols on POPs and Heavy Metals, as well as the Stockholm Convention); and, undertaking education and communications efforts in these high priority areas.

Activities to be funded by the NCP fall under five subprograms:

Activities to be funded by the NCP fall under five subprograms: human health; environmental monitoring and research; community-based monitoring and research; communications, capacity, and outreach; andnational/regional/international coordination and Aboriginal partnerships.

The NCP has recently updated the Blueprints, the Program’s long-term strategic plans, for conducting projects under each of these subprograms, taking into account new research results from the past year. Project proponents should consult these Blueprints when preparing their proposals. The NCP supports cross-disciplinary studies that advance general contaminants-related knowledge, including projects that address climate change – contaminant interactions, and encourages researchers to seek opportunities to combine NCP activities with those funded by other programs to explore these cross-disciplinary questions.

“Working to reduce and, wherever possible, eliminate contaminants in traditionally harvested foods, while providing information that assists informed decision making by individuals and communities in their food use”.

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