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Inuit who depend on the area for hunting have sought to have the area declared a marine conservation area since the mid-1980s.

Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc told a World Oceans Day summit in Ottawa on Wednesday that the government needs to find a faster way to create marine conservation areas and vowed to “erase years of inaction.”

But the Lancaster Sound proposal remains stalled by a debate over its borders. The federal government has outlined a smaller area that doesn’t include the permits, while Inuit and environmental groups have been holding out for a much larger protected zone that does.

In April, the World Wildlife Fund filed documents in Federal Court that argued Shell’s permits don’t even exist. The lawsuit claims the permits, purchased in the mid-1970s, were never renewed and have lapsed — a position that has found support among legal scholars.

Crothers said that lawsuit is unrelated to the company’s decision.

“We had initiated talks with the government and with (the Nature Conservancy of Canada) months ago. We don’t think that litigation is the way to go.”

David Miller, the president of the World Wildlife Fund, said the court challenge might have nudged both Shell and the government, but added, “Shell has absolutely done the right thing.”

“If the litigation helped move it along, that’s great, but that’s not the point for us,” said Miller.

Minutes from 2014 meetings between federal and Shell officials suggest the company was unwilling to part with the permits without compensation or without conducting at least some seismic tests.