![\"arctic-training-centre-supplied\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/arctic-training-centre-supplied.jpg;w=960.jpeg\"\/)
\nSnow machines ride over the snow. (Courtesy\/Jim Welsh) <\/p>\n
Arj Grewal recently founded a facility to facilitate validating, testing and trialling military-level technologies in northern conditions<\/p>\n
Exploding drones and clients from \u201cadversarial\u201d countries and their allies won\u2019t be allowed at the Arctic Training Centre, an up-and-coming security and defence facility for validating, testing and trialling military-level\u00a0technologies in northern conditions that has launched in the Yukon\u2019s capital, according to the centre\u2019s founder.<\/p>\n
Founder Arj Grewal told the News by phone\u00a0that the Arctic Training Centre is currently operating out of a rented space at the foot of Mount Sima in Whitehorse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel that I’m still very much part of the defence and sovereignty fight for Canada,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Grewal, who is a Canadian military veteran, recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Yukon government as part of standing up the centre. The non-binding deal doesn\u2019t have any money on the line.<\/p>\n
A Yukon government press release issued Aug. 28 noted the agreement is intended to promote the territory as a \u201cglobal hub for Arctic operational expertise and technology development.\u201d<\/p>\n
During an interview with the News, Yukon Economic Development Minister Ranj Pillai said this private-sector initiative builds on the work he and his colleagues have undertaken around defence and security. Pillai called it the third pillar, in addition to the Canadian Institute for Arctic Security policy think tank and the National Defence department\u2019s work around potentially establishing Canada\u2019s 25th naval reserve in the territory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has the opportunity to provide support to the Canadian Armed Forces and other allied nations in their training scope when it comes to the Arctic, and to partner with them to test technologies that they want to see deployed in the Arctic and in Arctic nations,\u201d Pillai said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is more about seizing this moment where the Canadian Armed Forces is looking to fast track their spending, upgrade their capabilities and knowledge in the Arctic, and ensuring that we’re prepared across all three territories for threats that may be ones that we see in the future or even exist now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nSnow machines ride over the snow. (Courtesy\/Jim Welsh)
<\/p>\n
Pillai\u2019s comment was made in the context of increased national attention on Arctic security and the new federal government\u2019s recent announcement to boost defence spending.<\/p>\n
On June 9, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the Government of Canada\u2019s plan to up defence spending to $9 billion in 2025-26, in effect achieving the two-per-cent target set by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, commonly called NATO. A press release from the Prime Minister\u2019s Office states the plan is to rebuild, rearm and reinvest in the Canadian Armed Forces.<\/p>\n
Filling a gap<\/p>\n
After about two decades serving in the Canadian infantry, Grewal saw a gap that he wanted to address. That led him to establish the Arctic Training Centre, which he said will take clients further north of the headquarters in Whitehorse, beyond the 66 parallel, and into the Arctic for specific training opportunities.<\/p>\n
Until 2019, Grewal spent the bulk of his military career with the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, which is described on the Government of Canada\u2019s website as a high-readiness group that can deploy on very short notice as part of the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces.<\/p>\n
He served during the \u201cglobal war on terror\u201d which he explained as Canada’s contribution to the allied work done within Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was notable about that time is how much technology we took from civil markets, so common off-the-shelf, also known as COTS, equipment, and found ways to leverage it for security operations. What happened within that 20 years was one of the most rapid evolutions of the security technologies,\u201d Grewal said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a new global order set by our adversaries in Europe, Russia, China, Iran, where we are seeing the need to rapidly evolve our military and security and technology validation to be able to meet that threat faster than we’re meeting it now. So the gap, in essence, was that we’re not doing that for Arctic and cold weather or sub-Arctic environments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grewal said most technologies that are going into the hands of wildfire fighters and military members have been created in the south, such as Toronto, Montreal and\u00a0the United States and other NATO-allied countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to invite large enterprises or startups who are looking at solving hard problems in the North, for the North and for the Arctic climate, to start doing that here within the Yukon, with local subject matter experts, with the First Nation community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The Arctic Training Centre) wants to be a platform to be able to facilitate that rapidly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A near-term example Grewal gave of the type of work that will happen at the centre involves testing out small drones and autonomous technology \u2014 not only for military and security purposes but also for wildfire prevention and wildlife monitoring.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s an airborne platform that needs to operate in, you know, hard, cold weather, difficult terrain with radio frequency challenges that exist to include energy logistics challenges,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to work with local communities and local First Nation groups to find a landscape where we can train and test that product and we would do so on the landscape or within our facility, which would be a research and development hub.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drawing the line<\/p>\n
The Arctic Training Centre won\u2019t permit testing of explosives.\u00a0Grewal offered\u00a0the sort of exploding drones common in the Ukraine war as an example of technology that won’t be tested here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are very well-established, government-run bases across our NATO allies that host training like that, where you can take a platform, arm it and then go test it there. But our Arctic training facility won’t be part of that piece,\u201d Grewal said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re not looking at hosting 400 soldiers from Country X to come in and tromp around the landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n
The centre has \u201csecure clearances\u201d in place to vet its clients. It will be conscious of who is coming and going, per Grewal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWho are they, who’s invested in that company, who’s backing that company, and who’s, you know, what sorts of capabilities are they looking at developing? So, we’ll have a very rigorous intake checklist that we\u2019ll go through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Grewal said the lines are \u201cclearly drawn\u201d through military cooperation and federal government documents and open sources.<\/p>\n
Grewal indicated by text that the lists are regularly updated and his centre can refer to a hotline for further information.<\/p>\n
Whether or not countries, such as the ones Grewal named \u2014 Iran, Russia, China and North Korea \u2014 are looking at doing training outside their jurisdictions, clients involved with those adversaries and their allies will be prevented from using the centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are countries that supply goods and services, but they’re also purchasers of security equipment and technologies, and there’s a very, very clear list of who are considered adversaries and which supply chains are seen as a threat or an adversarial entry point,\u201d Grewal said.<\/p>\n