Canadian officials are still deciding what role Canada should play in a Danish led expedition that set out to map part of the Arctic several days ago. The expedition left port and headed into the waters near the North Pole.

The head of Canada’s Arctic mapping program, Jacob Verhoef, said, “We are still negotiating the details of how far we are part of that.” Verhoef also admitted that “It’s a little bit late.”

The Swedish icebreaker the Oden sailed towards the waters north of Greenland last weekend in order to map out the Lomonosov Ridge. Lomonosov Ridge is an undersea ridge that geographers are expecting to be crucial in determining the boundaries in the Arctic seabed. Denmark, which has a claim in the area to be mapped out because of the country’s ownership of Greenland, is leading the expedition.

While Canada partnered up in a similar mapping expedition in 2007 that was headed by the Danish, Verhoef says that there is only one Canadian on board the Swedish icebreaker this time. And as for whether or not Canada will be given access to any of the data produced on the trip, he says, “That’s something we are still discussing with them.”

Arctic expert and international law professor Michael Byers believes that Canada’s hesitation in getting involved in the expedition may have something to do with the current Conservative government wanting to save money on the Arctic file, even though it would be a missed opportunity.

“The Lomonosov Ridge is an area where we have potential overlapping claims (with Denmark). We may be missing an opportunity to acquire some quite valuable information.”

“Likely, the Conservative government is trying to do some cost saving.”

Other parts of Canada’s Arctic strategy have seen some cutbacks already, including the postponement of the testing of a High Arctic surveillance system at the gates of the Northwest Passage.