Canada is looking at ways of increasing its’ arctic presence. It has finished building two navy, armed (Harry-DeWolf-class) arctic patrol ships with the third on its’ way. Canada is committed to expanding this number to six with likely two more for the coast guard. Canada has also expanded the number of icebreakers it has, by purchasing a number of surplus vessels.
One of the bigger questions of arctic sovereignty is: Will Canada expand Resolute’s faucilities by upgrading the airfield and finishing the all season deep-sea port. With a paved airstrip at Resolute Bay, Canada could fly Saab Gripens fighters and drones in and out and deliver supplies all year using a decent port. Truly claiming sovereignty of our arctic region.
This project will cost next to nothing as far as military costs go. We need to upgrade the NORAD radars etc. anyways, so let’s just do it.
Canada is still unable to pull the trigger on starting construction of our Polar Class Icebreaker, the CCGS John G. Diefenbaker. Davies shipyard is the only yard able to build it. Yet we still have no confirmation that we will ever start it, let alone a timetable for completion. This project must start now, no more delays. Our claim of sovereignty through the passage requires us to have a Polar Class Icebreaker that is up to the task.
With covid, sure let us wait till the pandemic is over, but lets get on with it. Money will never be as cheap to borrow as it is right now. Getting the country up and going again with projects such as this, should be an easy sell for the government.
image sources
- important_documents2: jon.t | CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Generic