Canada's national Inuit organization says it's unacceptable for Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon to exclude indigenous groups from an upcoming Arctic summit, even though Cannon has offered to consult them in advance.

Cannon has invited foreign ministers from Norway, Russia, Denmark (which includes Greenland) and the United States to Chelsea, Que., next month to discuss economic development and other issues faced by Arctic coastal nations.

But Cannon did not invite Arctic indigenous groups, such as the Inuit Circumpolar Council, nor did he invite Iceland, Sweden and Finland, which are members of the Arctic Council.

"If the government is going to be talking about economic development, then the people of the Arctic should be invited to discuss economic development in the Arctic," Pita Aatami, acting president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami in Canada, told CBC News in an interview.

"Government can't just unilaterally make decisions on our behalf without consulting us properly or inviting us to be in this meeting."

Meeting specific to coastal states

Talks about Arctic issues are usually held at the Arctic Council, which has representatives from eight governments and northern indigenous groups.

Last week, an official with Cannon's office said the intent of the Quebec meeting will be to focus on issues specific to Arctic coastal countries that would generally not be dealt with in the Arctic Council.

Leaders from each of the five coastal countries are working on extending their sovereign claims over a larger area of the Arctic seabed, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The official said Cannon would consult with the Arctic Council advisory committee, which includes indigenous groups and the three northern Canadian territories, in advance of the March 29 meeting.

Aatami, however, said northern indigenous groups should be sitting at the same table as the Arctic leaders meeting in Quebec, not just being consulted in advance.

"Consulting is not the same as being part of any discussion that's going to be related to our homeland," Aatami said.

Centre of debate

The issue of whether the five Arctic coastal states should meet independently of the Arctic Council generated a lot of debate at last year's Arctic Council ministerial meeting, said Mead Treadwell, chairman of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission in Anchorage, Alaska.

"In the end, to make the right things happen in the Arctic, I think you'll have the 'A5' of groups that have coastline and sovereignty [issues], you'll have the A8 of groups that are all Arctic and bring the indigenous people to the table," he said.

"Then you'll probably have an A100, which is the kind of partners that we need to make sure [we] go along with what we need to have happen in the North."