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Strengthening Canada’s Arctic Forces
THE CHALLENGE
After years of Liberal abandonment, Canada does not have sufficient capacity to fulfill our Arctic sovereignty responsibilities. All three Canadian military services – navy, army, and air force – lack basic capabilities to defend Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic. Our capacity is threadbare.
It is unacceptable for the United States or any other country to disregard Canada’s Arctic sovereignty. Washington does not accept Canadian sovereignty over our Northwest Passage. In 1985 the American icebreaker Polar Sea traversed the Northwest Passage without Canada’s permission, and today Washington continues to flout Canadian sovereignty with the unauthorized passage of American submarines traveling through Canadian waters.1
The U.S. does not recognize Canada’s boundary in the resource-rich Beaufort Sea. And there are disputes with Russia, the U.S., and Denmark over boundary lines for the Arctic continental shelf.2 These sovereignty disputes are an increasing problem because the Northwest Passage could be open for shipping within 10 to 20 years and because of the potential for significant resource wealth in the north.
International law and diplomacy are important instruments in the protection of Canada’s sovereignty. However, our claims must be backed by a National Defence presence. This means the capacity for both surveillance and presence over every part of Canada’s Arctic territory.
Canada’s navy has virtually no Arctic operational capability. We have no navy ships capable of Arctic duty, we have no capacity to monitor Arctic waters for foreign submarines or ships, and we are “the only Arctic country that doesn’t have a deep-water port along its northern coastline.”3 As a senior Defence official recently reported in Parliament, “our presence in the Arctic has been largely fictional.”4
Canada’s army lacks the training or equipment to operate effectively in the Arctic. There is no capacity to deploy the army throughout the Arctic to defend Canada’s sovereignty. Arctic army equipment, for the most part, does not exist in sufficient quality or quantity. Arctic army training has also not been a priority for the Liberal government, and this must change.
Canada’s air force has no permanently based fixed-wing search-and-rescue aircraft in the Arctic, where survival rates are measured in minutes and hours. Our southern-based search-and-rescue capability “is closer to Cuba than it is to some parts of Nunavut.”5 Further, our air force does not have enough surveillance aircraft to conduct sovereignty patrols in the Arctic. As one expert recently said, “We don’t have any idea what’s going on up there.”6
The Canadian Rangers, the frontline of the Canadian Forces in the Arctic, are short on personnel, their equipment is outdated and difficult to maintain, and their activity rate is insufficient to meet sovereignty needs. In short, more resources must be committed to the Canadian Rangers.
THE PLAN
The Conservative plan – a “Canada First” defence strategy – will strengthen Canada’s sovereignty. The primary objective of the federal government is to defend our nation’s sovereignty, and the Canadian Forces are central to this national objective. Sovereignty means Canada must be able to fulfill national responsibilities, to provide effective emergency response, and to protect our vast territory as well as to support UN and NATO responsibilities.
A Conservative government will:
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Station three new armed naval heavy icebreakers in the area of Iqaluit. These icebreakers, which will be made in Canada, will include 500 regular force personnel for crews and support and will be capable of carrying troops. This commitment will establish a Canadian naval presence in the Arctic.
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Build a new military/civilian deep-water docking facility in the area of Iqaluit. This facility will be home to the naval icebreakers and it will also include a civilian component. This facility will be built through 100 per cent federal funding and will boost economic development in the north.
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Establish a new Arctic National Sensor System for northern waters. This national system will include underwater surveillance listening posts, such as acoustic or movement sensors, that will detect the movement and position of any foreign submarines and ships in Canadian Arctic waters.
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Build a new Arctic army training centre in the area of Cambridge Bay. This centre on the Northwest Passage will be staffed by an estimated 100 regular force personnel capable of training army units in Arctic operations using new equipment such as cross snow/tundra troop carriers.
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Station new fixed-wing search-and-rescue aircraft in Yellowknife. These aircraft will provide essential services to the north and will be in addition to utility aircraft replacements.
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Provide eastern and western Arctic air surveillance. New long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) squadrons (est. 100 regular force personnel each) will be stationed at CFB Goose Bay and CFB Comox to provide continuous Arctic and Ocean surveillance and patrol. As well, the upgrades of the Aurora aircraft and the satellite surveillance system will be completed to provide a complete Arctic surveillance capability.
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Revitalize the Canadian Rangers. Up to 500 additional Rangers will be recruited. The Rangers’ level of activity and training will be increased and equipment will be upgraded.
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Provide an army emergency response capability. A new airborne battalion at CFB Trenton with airlift will provide a rapid emergency response capability throughout the entire Arctic region.
The Conservative Arctic sovereignty plan is costed within the previously announced Conservative “Canada First” defence spending plan, which will increase the National Defence budget base over currently planned levels in each of the next five years.
Spending will amount to $5.3 billion above the currently planned levels over the next five years, reaching $1.8 billion above current projections in 2010-11. The cost of major capital equipment such as icebreakers is spread over its life, so the annual budgetary amounts include only a portion of the full capital cost. As a standard departmental practice, the full cost of capital acquisitions will be provided on a cash basis in the years they are acquired.
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- “Canada will stop U.S. subs from sailing Arctic waters: ‘Will defend our sovereignty,’ he says after U.S. craft reaches North Pole.” The Province, December 20, 2005.
- “Arctic dispute ‘only about the island’,” Ottawa Citizen, August 12, 2005.
“Iqaluit proposes Arctic seaport facility,” Globe and Mail, October 11, 2005.
- Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, “Canada’s Coastlines: The Longest Under-Defended Borders in the World,” October 2003, pg. 23.
- E.G. (Ted) Lennox, “It’s time… Search and Rescue In the Arctic!” FrontLine Magazine, Sept-Oct 2005, pp. 17-18.
- “U.S. sub may have toured Canadian Arctic zone: 'We don't have any idea what's going on up there': expert.” National Post, December 19, 2005.
