{"id":538093,"date":"2026-03-15T13:52:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T13:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/538093\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T13:52:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T13:52:40","slug":"canada-to-spend-nearly-35-billion-to-fortify-north-assert-sovereignty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/538093\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada to spend nearly $35-billion to fortify North, assert sovereignty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during his visit to 440 Transport Squadron in Yellowknife on Thursday.Carlos Osorio\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The federal government will spend nearly $35-billion to upgrade military installations in the North aimed at defending against threats to North America and asserting territorial sovereignty in the Arctic, Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> announced in Yellowknife Thursday.<\/p>\n

The bulk of the money, $32-billion, will be used to upgrade military Forward Operating Locations in Yellowknife, Inuvik and Iqaluit, as well as the Deployed Operating Base at 5 Wing Goose Bay in Labrador. These provide hangars, fuel and accommodations to support fighter squadrons deployed in service of the Canada-U.S. North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD).<\/p>\n

Funds will pay for upgraded airfields, new or repurposed hangars, ammunition and fuel storage, as well as upgraded accommodations, warehouses and information technology equipment.<\/p>\n

Mr. Carney also announced that four Northern infrastructure projects would be referred to Ottawa\u2019s Major Projects Office, which streamlines regulatory approvals and financing for \u201cnation-building\u201d projects of national interest. These include the 800-kilometre Mackenzie Valley Highway, the Grays Bay Road and Port, the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor, and the Taltson Hydro Expansion Project.<\/p>\n

What are Prime Minister Mark Carney’s four newly announced Northern major projects?<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada has been under pressure from allies to do more to secure the Arctic, particularly because of the increasing presence of Russia and China in the region. Mr. Carney last year unveiled the biggest increase in defence<\/a> spending in more than 70 years.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister, who was born in the Northwest Territories, boasted that his government is more ambitious than those in decades past, which he said too often made only \u201cpiecemeal\u201d investments in the North. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are securing every corner of this terrain, unlocking its vast resources, and delivering the strong, connected network of communities that Northerners deserve,\u201d the Prime Minister said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this new era, we cannot rely on other nations for our security and prosperity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carney to discuss energy security during three-day trip to Norway<\/a><\/p>\n

Defence Minister David McGuinty, who joined Mr. Carney at the Yellowknife announcement, said in an interview that the Arctic is his \u201cnext big priority\u201d now that he\u2019s completed the task of raising Canada\u2019s defence spending to the equivalent of 2 per cent of national GDP. He said Canada intends to be master of its own domain in the region. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe threat landscape has changed. It\u2019s increasingly of concern,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said risks to Canada include hypersonic missiles and drones. Also, the minister said, \u201cwe are obviously looking at questions around the Russian and Chinese presence in the Arctic, in terms of vessels above and below water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the money for Thursday\u2019s announcement comes from a 2022 spending commitment for NORAD modernization made by then-prime-minister Justin Trudeau, which has already been accounted for in federal budgeting. <\/p>\n

Ottawa has not previously announced precisely how this NORAD upgrade money would be spent. The Prime Minister\u2019s Office, citing data from the Department of National Defence, said the total 2022 NORAD modernization pledge amounts to $87-billion on a cash basis \u2013 a number that had not been widely publicized before now. Thursday\u2019s announcement allocates more than one-third of that money.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

National Defence Minister David McGuinty speaks during an announcement at the National Research Council Flight Research Lab in Ottawa on Monday.Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The upgrades will bring Canada\u2019s aged Northern military infrastructure \u2013 much of it dating from mid-Cold War \u2013 into the 21st century, enabling it to accommodate highly connected modern aircraft being purchased by Ottawa, such as F-35 strike fighters, P-8A Poseidon patrol and reconnaissance planes or SkyGuardian drones. <\/p>\n

Mr. Carney also announced that Canada is spending $2.7-billion to build another two Northern Operational Support Hubs in the Arctic hamlet of Resolute and in Whitehorse, as well as two smaller support \u201cnodes\u201d in Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay. <\/p>\n

The support hubs enable quick Canadian Armed Forces<\/a> deployment in the North and typically feature airstrips, warehouses, accommodations, and fuel and ammunition depots, while the \u201cnodes\u201d are smaller support hubs that in some cases can be packed up and transported to new locations. <\/p>\n

Mr. Carney\u2019s Thursday announcement brings the total number of these major hubs, or NOSHs, to five, including Iqaluit, Inuvik and Yellowknife.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese locations are at the heart of our mission to defend our territory,\u201d Mr. Carney said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will enable us to deploy aircraft across remote areas of the Arctic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Carney also announced four Northern infrastructure projects would be referred to Ottawa\u2019s Major Projects Office.Carlos Osorio\/Reuters<\/p>\n

A major logistical challenge for Canada\u2019s Arctic is the lack of sufficient roads reaching into the region, a big portion of which is an archipelago of islands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Scandinavians can drive to most of the places in their Arctic,\u201d said David Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, a think tank.<\/p>\n

Ottawa has long resisted building a permanent base in the North, which would bring huge costly requirements to accommodate and support troops and their families.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Great defence industrial policy, Carney. But how do we know it\u2019s working?<\/a><\/p>\n

But the Canadian Forces are now aiming for \u201cnear-persistent\u201d presence in the region through deployments under Operation Nanook, the military\u2019s signature Northern exercise. This year, it plans for military training in the region for up to 10 months of the year.<\/p>\n

Mr. Carney said Canada would spend $294-million on upgrading other Arctic airports, including Rankin Inlet Airport and Inuvik Airport, to enable larger aircraft to land \u2013 a benefit for both civilian and military aircraft.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister said the defence spending will also benefit nearby Northern communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will require new energy infrastructure, new broadband, new telecommunications services, new wastewater services,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat that means, as we build these military operations, we can transform and benefit the surrounding communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ottawa plans to double defence exports, create 125,000 jobs in next decade<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year, the Prime Minister announced that Canada would partner with Australia for an early-warning radar system to cover airspace from the U.S. border to the Arctic, with the expectation that it will be operational by 2029. It\u2019s another part of the NORAD modernization effort.<\/p>\n

The system, as the federal government has described it, would be used to detect incoming missiles and is being developed as Western militaries grapple with how to respond to advances in Russian and Chinese hypersonic missiles, which can change course in flight, as well as advanced cruise missiles with improved stealth capabilities.<\/p>\n

The new over-the-horizon radar system will cost $6-billion over 20 years to build and run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during his visit to 440 Transport Squadron in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,714,66],"class_list":["post-538093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-politics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538093","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=538093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}