I actually has the great chance to join Robert Swan on his mission last year (Feb 2005) in Antarctica. The clean up project was pretty much complete and our job was to start the 5 year project of building an education centre in Antarctica. Last year we built the accomodation hut, this years team will start to build the education centre itself. In fact they set sail from Ushuaia tomorrow (Feb 26th) for Antarctica - you can follow the progress on
www.2041.com.
As for similar things in Canada, though I lived in Canada for 7 years and had lots of friends who were arctic scientists, I don't know of any similar missions. If I find out about any I will post the info here.
btw: anyone can join Roberts missions, you just need to get sponsorship. I am a packaging designer, not a polar explorer or professional environmentalist, I am just passionate about Antarctica! Details on how to join his missions are on the 2041 website also.