{"id":407871,"date":"2026-01-14T04:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T04:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/407871\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T04:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T04:20:08","slug":"spicy-times-call-for-big-increase-in-arctic-investments-obed-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/407871\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Spicy\u2019 times call for big increase in Arctic investments, Obed says"},"content":{"rendered":"

ITK president focuses on marine infrastructure, threats to Arctic waters in Iqaluit speech<\/p>\n

\u201cSpicy\u201d times in the world call for \u201cgenerational\u201d investments in Canada\u2019s Arctic, says Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed.<\/p>\n

Obed made the remarks while attending the Ingiulik\u00a0Nunavut Shipping Summit at the Aqsarniit hotel in Iqaluit Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The ITK president was keynote speaker on the second day of the four-day Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.-led event, which attracted delegates from across the Canadian Arctic, Alaska and Greenland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an unacceptable reality that our 51 [Inuit Nunangat] communities are so underserviced from a marine infrastructure end,\u201d Obed said in his speech, noting Canadian Rangers require facilities to launch their patrols and sealift companies need better options to unload cargo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to do better, and hopefully, we can work with the Government of Canada and jurisdictions to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obed addressed ongoing concerns around the United States and other countries interested in gaining greater access to Arctic waters.<\/p>\n

Rather than focusing on recent escalating threats by U.S. President Donald Trump and other American officials to annex Greenland<\/a>, Obed addressed the longstanding U.S. position which views the Northwest Passage as international waters.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Obed said ITK\u2019s opinion is that the Northwest Passage belongs to both Canada and the Inuit whose land claims it passes through. The Canadian government considers the passage to be within Canadian jurisdiction as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may be in the crosshairs of other nation states\u2019 interests in a way that we just have not had to consider,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur shipping policies, our marine policies, and the ability to develop them here in the present \u2014 before all of this other noise that comes into the picture \u2014 is something that we really shouldn\u2019t let pass by.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his speech, Obed told reporters that Trump\u2019s threats and comments regarding Greenland are cause for concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you hear President Trump, one of the accusations he cast against Greenland is their lack of investment within Greenland. And if that is going to be a measure of another nation state\u2019s justification for taking over space that they feel is underutilized, then I do worry about that case being made against Inuit Nunangat in Canada,\u201d Obed said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the time to focus on strengthening our communities, to strengthen our sovereignty, and also \u2026 to ensure co-operation and partnership between Inuit and Canada and then Canada and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Obed said these are \u201cspicy\u201d and \u201cuncertain\u201d times, but also a time where Inuit in Canada and beyond are finding solidarity with each other. He said he hopes to connect with international delegates this week to reaffirm that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to just try as best as we can to mobilize with our existing allies,\u201d Obed said, \u201cto ensure that democracy is strengthened, that our allies are not going to annex or forcefully take over their allies\u2019 lands and resources.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ITK president focuses on marine infrastructure, threats to Arctic waters in Iqaluit speech \u201cSpicy\u201d times in the world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-407871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}