Alaska to scale: expansive and expensive.

• Author: Harrington, Susan
• Position: FROM THE EDITOR - Editorial

We all know Alaska is the largest state in the United States and that the abundance of natural resources has fostered an economy dependent on the development of those resources. Once developed, those resources play out, with further exploration and additional development needed to keep production up to speed and generate more money for an ever-present and constantly growing population with expansive and expensive needs, much like the industries making up the economy.

Expansive and expensive--that is Alaska to scale. So much so that partnerships are needed, collaborative investments to enable progress in the growth and development of industries as well as to pay for and build needed infrastructure supporting all that progress. Some of these investments come from business and industry, some from government, some from foreign lands.

Alaska's economy is built on partnerships between and among many private and public domestic and multinational corporations, nations, and governments.

Canada has long been a source of many long-term and ongoing collaborative natural resources partnerships. Northwest Territories Premier Bob McLeod has some new ideas for collaboration and partnership with Alaska, now that the Northwest Territories has undergone devolution and the federal government of Canada has now transferred responsibility for managing public land, water, and resources to the territory.

Much like when Alaska became a state in 1959, apparently, devolution with the Northwest Territories has taken decades to accomplish, with the federal government of Canada transferring some powers over time, such as responsibility for everything except managing public land, water, and resources, which was finalized in April this year. Now, the territory is more like a province in Canada, or a state in the United States. It will receive 50 percent of resource revenues...