I am sorry but, as a Canadian they way I understood it was that those people in our far north have sacrificed a lot of the every day freedoms and luxuries that we have in order for Canada to maintain territorial claim over the land. Our government literally scooped up people and their families and relocated them there and left them there to starve at first. If those communities were not there Canada would have lost claim to it. So we tax payers as you put it have agreed to have a higher welfare system up there for those people and to ship them milk and other supplies even though it cost ridiculous amounts of money. Because one day all that ice will free up and the amount of resources up there will be incredible.