Prime Minister Mark Carney’s announcement Thursday of a more than $35-billion plan to upgrade and expand Canada’s military presence in the Arctic is welcome news, one expert said, but is really meant for an audience of one: U.S. President Donald Trump.
The federal government says most of the funding — $32 billion — will go toward improvements at three NORAD forward operating bases in Yellowknife, Inuvik and Iqaluit, as well as the 5 Wing Goose Bay air base in Labrador. Those upgrades will include airfield improvements, fuel facilities, ammunition compounds and housing.
A new network of four northern operational support bases in Whitehorse and the Nunavut communities of Resolute, Cambridge Bay and Rankin Inlet will be backed by a $2.67-billion investment.
The network will allow the Canadian Armed Forces to operate year-round in the Arctic and deploy rapidly while there, the Prime Minister’s Office said, a key aim of Carney’s efforts to boost security in the far north.
“It’s clear that this amount of money — multiple tens of billions of dollars on military bases in the Arctic — that’s an announcement that’s designed to be heard by President Donald Trump,” said Michael Byers, a political science professor and military policy researcher at the University of British Columbia.
“This is a perfect response to the president’s rhetoric about the ’51st state.’ We’re saying as a country, ‘We’ve got this. We’re going to take care of Arctic security, we’re going get those critical minerals for you. We’re on your side. Leave us alone. We’re your friends, we’ll take care of these files.’”
Trump has repeatedly threatened Canada’s sovereignty in part by complaining about Canada’s ability to protect the Arctic — and subsequently all of North America — from potential threats emerging from Russia and China.
Carney has vowed to strengthen Canada’s contributions to NORAD and NATO through increased defence spending and a focus on rearming and rebuilding the Canadian Armed Forces, particularly in the Arctic.
“With this plan, we are taking control of our future,” Carney said at Thursday’s announcement in Yellowknife.
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“We will no longer rely on others to defend our Arctic security or to fuel our economy. We are taking full responsibility for defending our sovereignty.”
That also extends to critical minerals and economic infrastructure that Carney and northern premiers have said are just as important as military presence.
Carney said Thursday that four northern projects — the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor, the Grays Bay Road and Port, the Mackenzie Valley Highway and the Taltson Hydro Expansion Project — are being referred to the Major Projects Office for expedited review and approval.
The Arctic Security and Economic Corridor would include roads connecting Nunavut and the Northwest Territories to the wider Canadian highway system year-round for the first time.
It would also connect to the new Grays Bay Road, a proposed 230-kilometre, all-season road that will run from the Nunavut border to a new deepwater export terminal and airfield on the Arctic Ocean. That port will present opportunities for critical mineral exports and military use, Carney said.
“The combination of these defence investments with the nation-building projects we are announcing today will strengthen Arctic security, open new economic opportunities and connect communities,” he said.
Byers noted the efforts supporting critical mineral transport and export are also aimed at Trump.
“We have lots of critical minerals, so it’s not just about saying that Canada has got the Arctic security file,” he said. “It’s also saying that we’ve got the minerals that you need and we’re going to help you with this, too, in the long term.”
The federal government previously included the Arctic Security and Economic Corridor in a list of “transformative strategies” last September that could be considered under its major projects law, but requires further development.
Northwest Territories Premier R.J. Simpson and Nunavut Premier John Main made the case for the corridor project in testimony to a House of Commons committee early this year while pushing for long-term investments in the North.
The premiers noted during their testimony that the highway systems within the territories consist primarily of single-lane gravel or chip-sealed roads. Nunavut has very few roads and is not connected by a highway to the rest of Canada, with many goods having to be shipped in by cargo plane for most of the year.
The proposed 800-km Mackenzie Valley Highway would connect Yellowknife to Inuvik for commercial shipping and year-round access to remote and Indigenous communities. Ottawa has already invested over $100 million in the project.
Carney said construction will begin this summer once the project is approved.
The Northwest Territories has also championed the Taltson Hydro Expansion Project that will double the territory’s hydro electricity capacity by adding 60 megawatts to the existing system.
The remaining funds announced Thursday, $294 million, will go to upgrading Inuvik Airport and adding a new runway overlay at Rankin Inlet Airport, which will also get modernizing improvements.
—with files from Global’s David Akin
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