It is responsible for monitoring, promoting, and disseminating knowledge of the polar regions (both Arctic and Antarctic), contributing to public awareness of the importance of polar science to Canada, enhancing Canada's international profile as a circumpolar nation, and recommending polar science policy direction to government.
The organization was established when the former Canadian Polar Commission, formed in 1991, and the Arctic Science and Technology Directorate within CIRNAC that is responsible for Canadian High Arctic Research Station was merged into one unit on June 1, 2015.[2] Its main office is at the Canadian High Arctic Research Station in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, which opened in August 2019.[3]