Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced an ambitious new plan to defend and transform Canada’s North, which involves investing $35 billion in infrastructure for its military air bases and two northern airports. The money will be spent over the next decade. The plan is new, but the money is not. The funds were previously announced in 2022 as part of a North American Air Defense (Norad) modernization strategy. After four years, the government has laid out a blueprint to spend the money it had previously earmarked. In a background briefing, defence officials say contracts are now going out for tender and the government is now actively looking for builders in the private sector to help it expand its air bases. A news release issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) stated that “previous governments had lacked the scale and the breadth of strategy that the vast region demands.” “After decades of limited and piecemeal investments in the North, Canada’s new government is acting with a sale of ambition worthy of this vast region and its peoples,” Carney said. “We are securing every corner of this terrain, unlocking its vast resources and delivering the strong connected network of communities that Northerners deserve.” The government will “defend fully Canada’s Arctic and North, deter new threats and support NATO allies and Norad continental defence.” Officials are concerned that there may not be enough workers in the North. The government is seeking request for proposals from builders across Canada, but says they want bids that prioritize employing the 140,000 Northerners and Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic. Carney’s blueprint includes spending $32 billion at forward operating military bases in Yellowknife, Inuvik, N.W.T., Iqaluit, Nunavut and at Deployed Operating Base (DOB) in 5 Wing Goose Bay in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L. These bases are designed to support F-35s. Officials say they could also support Gripen fighters. The government says it has not yet decided on whether it will purchase a mixed fleet. Two new Northern Operational Support Hubs will be built in the Yukon capital of Whitehorse and in Resolute, Nunavut, while smaller support nodes will be constructed in the Nunavut hamlets of Cambridge Bay and Ranklin Inlet. The new support facilities will be backed by $2.67 billion. The investments will go towards improving airfields, fuel facilities, ammunition compounds, and ensuring that the defence data housed at the bases is secure. Another $294 million will be used to upgrade the Rankin Inlet Airport and to the Inuvik Airport runway. Carney also referred several proposals for northern highway expansions to the Major Projects Office (MPO). The referrals include providing year-round access to the Mackenzie Valley Highway. The 800-kilometre long highway aims to connect Yellowknife to Inuvik and open up commercial opportunities. The Grays Bay Road and Port is a proposed all-season road that stretches 230 kilometers from the Nunavut border to a deep-water port. Carney says the MPO will also help fast track approvals for the Arctic Economic Security Corridor, another all-season road that also connects to Grays Bay. The Taltson Hydro Expansion Project which aims to double hydro capacity for 70 percent of residents in the Northwest Territories has also been sent to the MPO. The MPO aims to get projects approved within two years. Since the office was launched last August, it has not approved a single project. The Liberal government says it aims to use these investments and proposals to facilitate the development of critical minerals, clean energy and trade corridors to realize the region’s “full economic potential.”
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