Last year saw a great deal of wrangling, politicking, and controversy surrounding a proposal to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This year, Canada's getting a turn, with Canadian mining firm Ur-Energy proposing to drill in the Screech Lake region, 100 km north of the Thelon Wildlife Sanctuary (another link) - 52,000 square kilometer area stradling the border of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, north of Manitoba and Saskatchewan (somewhere in here). Needless to say, government (Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board), First Nations groups (Dene First Nation), and environmental groups are all getting involved. Stay tuned for updates, and The Globe and Mail has good coverage for now here and here (get them before they go behind a pay wall...).