Mark Carney expected to announce billions for Arctic Security tomorrow

Noah Note

Prime Minister Carney is expected to make several major announcements related to Arctic Security tomorrow, TNSR has learnt. The Prime Minister will be in Yellowknife ahead of a planned trip to Europe.

The Prime Minister will be visiting both Norway and the UK from the 13th where he is expected to observe the Norwegian-led NATO Exercise Cold Response as well as participate in this week's Canada-Nordic Summit.

Before that though the Prime Minister will be in Yellowknife along with Defence Minister McGuinty and Secretary of State Fuhr. There the Prime Minister is expected to outline billions in new spending to support the North and Arctic Security.

Among these rumored announcements include:

• Tens of billion in funding to support Canada’s Forward Operating Locations in Yellowknife, Inuvik, Iqaluit, and Goose Bay with new upgrades and expansions of critical infrastructure including runways, roads, and energy infrastructure

• Announcing the first trache of permenant Northern Operational Support Nodes to complement the larger Northern Operational Support Hubs and support year-eound operations in the Arctic. Rumor is that Cambridge Bay will be at least one.

• Furthern support to airports in the Arctic, including seperate funding to support expansion and modernization

• The recommendation of several new projects to the Major Projects Office. Rumors include the Grays Bay Road and Port, Taltson Hydro Expansion, and Mackenzie Valley Highway will all be included.

Of course as of now treat these all as rumors. I await potential judgement until I see all the details for myself, which sadly I don't have at this time. However, I have it on good authority that these are accurate to tomorrows announcements.

Obviously their inclusion would be a significant expansion of Canada’s funding commitments to Arctic Security, especially coming off the crossing of Nunuvat MP Lori Idlout to the Liberal party. It would also be a significsnt expansion on the original funding set out for supporting the Northern Operational Support Hubs, with the current rumored number to be past $40 billion in expected funding to be committed tomorrow.

Of course time will tell how well that will go, and of course details remain limited at this time to me personally. However, I feel this is enough information (and significant enough) for me to do a late-night, emergency post to give you all the deats…

The inclusion of both the Grays Bay Road and Mackenzie Highway expansion to the Major Projects Office would be a substantial commitment at a time when infrastructure across the North is currently undergoing a major collapse to the scale that we've never seen.

I wrote about it a few months ago but it's always good to reiterate the current situation up north. The Mackenzie River is failing, it's waters are slowly decreasing to the point that the barge season was only barely able to be completed last year, and the year before was heabily restricted.

Hundreds of thousands of existing kilometers of Ice Roads are at threat of being rendered infeasible of being used, risking the supply of dozens of isolated communities in Canada’s North. Of course you can read more details in my post above, however it always bares repeating that existing Infrastructure is crumbling.

These two hughways won't fix that, not by a longshot, but they'll provide a central spine for which Canada can continue to build upon in the future. They will serve as significant corridors of interconnective trade between Canada’s North and South, while further providing the CAF with permenant infrastructure they can utilize in supplement to existing infrastructure that is again at severe risk.

The loss of the Mackenzie River, and the railway up to Hay River have created severe complications for the CAF is resupplying and supporting operations in the Arctic, forcing supplies to the limited infrastructure in the form of the Dempster Highway or on the much more complex, limited airlift that can be done. That or travelling around Alaska.

So expanding multiple nodes on interconnected highways is a major need not just for our security but for supporting firther economic and human development in Canada’s Arctic. Again we'll see what tomorrow brings, however I felt it significant enough to at least mention and report on ahead of time.

Guess tomorrow will be an exciting day!