The question of whether to make commercial ships register with Canada when entering Arctic waters, such as the Northwest Passage, arose Wednesday at a meeting of federal and territorial officials in charge of Arctic security.

Members of the Arctic security working group discussed the issue as part of meetings being held this week in Yellowknife.

It is now voluntary for commercial ships to register with Canadian officials when entering Arctic waters, although it's mandatory to register when entering Canadian waters on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.

Group chair Brig.-Gen. Chris Whitecross, who heads military operations in the North, said deciding whether to make it mandatory for ships to register in Arctic waters is a political decision.

But so far, she added, the voluntary system seems to be working.

"I can't think of a ship that's come through the Canadian waters since I've been here that hasn't gone through the regulatory [process]," Whitecross said Wednesday.

But Rob Huebert, an Arctic sovereignty expert with the University of Calgary and another member of the working group, said Ottawa is simply afraid to force ships to register.

"The reason why it's a voluntary system is because there has been this ongoing fear of what it may provoke the Americans into doing," Huebert said, noting the United States' opinion that the Northwest Passage is an international waterway.

Huebert said the relatively small community of shippers using the passage right now voluntarily register in order to obtain ice reports and other information, as well as assistance from Canadian icebreakers. But he warned that will change, as stronger ships being built will make getting ice reports less important.

Huebert also predicted many new countries will start using the Northwest Passage in the future, and some won't bother registering because they would rather avoid Canada's more environmentally stringent shipping regulations.

He added that enforcing those shipping laws will be a challenge, given Canada's current fleet of icebreakers.

"Our icebreaking fleet is small and getting very old very rapidly," he said. "Our very best icebreaker, the Louis St. Laurent, was built in 1969."

Still, Huebert said Canada is doing more to detect foreign ships in northern waters. Up until the mid-1990s, Inuit hunters or Canadian Rangers were the only source of information on foreign vessels in the Arctic. Now, he said, politicians are paying more attention, with the military planning to have a satellite surveillance system in place next summer.