RANKIN INLET, Nunavut - Michaelle Jean says she hopes her fifth and perhaps last Arctic trip as Governor General will help capture the attention and interest of southern Canadians in the resource-rich and internationally disputed region.
Jean said Monday that Canadian sovereignty over the Arctic is an "empty shell" unless the Inuit benefit from new mines, military installations, oil projects and shipping.
After landing on a frosty airstrip, Jean delivered a speech at a high-school gymnasium, where she asked students to speak about their aspirations.
"The reason I'm here is I really want people down south to know what life is like here," Jean said. "Development in the North cannot happen without you. It has to be about you."
Jean is making an unusually forceful pitch for the federal government to help build a university in the North so that more Inuit share in economic growth in the region.
Ottawa has said it's not looking to build a university in the Arctic soon.
The Conservatives say they've increased funding for colleges in the area and donated to an international project to improve school programs in different Arctic countries.
But Jean says the region needs more. She points to the University of Tromso, which serves Norway's Sami aboriginals, as an inspiration for Canada.
Tromso's medicine, law and geology faculties are the kind of programs, she says, that could inspire more Canadian Inuit to pursue an education. The high-school graduation rate in Nunavut is the lowest in Canada, at a mere 25 per cent.
With so few university students in the North, Jean suggests opening up the school to students throughout Canada and breaking it up into smaller satellite campuses throughout the Arctic.
She handed out achievement awards Monday and invited a recipient -- Adine Sandy -- to describe her dreams.
The teenager remained tongue-tied while an auditorium full of classmates cheered her on. Eventually, she shyly whispered in the Governor General's ear that she wanted to study management and run a business.
Jean reached around to caress the baby swaddled on the teenager's back.
Jean's own daughter, Marie-Eden, is taking a week off school to see the Arctic. She had never made a Northern visit before, and got a quick introduction to the region's less-than-balmy temperatures.
The delegation was greeted by snow flurries and sub-zero temperatures, and Marie-Eden wrapped a red scarf around her face to ward off the whistling wind.
Jean is spending a week in the region, mostly in Nunavut to celebrate the territory's 10th anniversary.
As she approaches the final year of her five-year mandate, Jean says she's not sure whether she'll make it back before her term expires. She expressed uncertainty when asked whether it would be her last trip there as Governor General.
"It could be," Jean said in an interview. "I hope not. Of course, as time goes by I start thinking about that."
Jean began her term in the summer of 2005 and, unless the government extends her mandate, it would end next year. She said she's not sure whether that will happen.
"I don't know," Jean said. "I think right now, I'll take one day at a time.
"And until I'm done I will continue really making sure that this institution is giving a voice -- or making sure that the voice of people who are not often heard, get heard."
