PM talks up need for Arctic military presence
Harper’s speech about boosting capabilities comes at a time of delays, cutbacks in programs
ABOARD HMCS ST. JOHN’S — Wrapping up his weeklong trip to Canada’s North, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a group of military men and women that an increased military presence in the North was crucial to protecting Canadian sovereignty in the region, and the natural resources his government sees as key to the country’s economic future.
Harper addressed the troops aboard a navy frigate after watching the military’s annual Northern exercise in Hudson Bay near Churchill, Man.
“Our North, and all the wealth that it contains, will be a critical part of Canada’s future,” Harper said in addressing the troops.
“And in an uncertain world where demand for resources is growing, where any number of civilian needs can suddenly come upon us and where conflicts and potential conflicts remain ever present, you, our men and women in uniform, are here, to, literally stand on guard for the true North strong and free.”
Boosting Canada’s military capabilities in the Arctic has been a focus for Harper on his previous six summer tours of the North, with announcements made under the banner of protecting and enforcing Canadian sovereignty over our Arctic territory.
In his speech, he also said that it was important to be ready to respond to any event, referencing the military’s response to an airline crash in the Arctic last year that coincided with Operation Nanook. When the First Air aircraft went down, killing all but three people on board, the military were the first to respond to the disaster.
“Sadly, possible scenarios sometimes become tragic realities as we saw last year in Resolute Bay with the crash of a First Air jet,” Harper said.
“It was a sad reminder that, in an uncertain world, constant preparedness is a soldier’s occupation.”
Harper has long been an advocate for a beefed up presence in the North, going back to his days in opposition. After four days of talking about the economic potential in the North, he returned to his traditional theme of asserting Canada’s military presence in the region.
“Through history and geography, it has become Canada’s destiny to protect a large portion of our planet’s North. Canada has been a consistent champion of the Arctic as a zone of responsible development, environmental protection and international peace,” Harper said in his speech.
“Yet we also remain determined to assert our national interest and to protect our sovereignty in our North.”
However, many of the projects Harper has announced have either been delayed or scaled back. Rather than three armed icebreakers, the federal government is building one — the John Diefenbaker — and has opted instead for a series of armed Arctic patrol vessels.
The patrol vessels are also three years behind schedule and the $ 3.1- billion project is now expected to cost $ 40 million more than anticipated. Delivery of the first six to eight ships has been pushed back to 2018 rather than 2015 as the government hoped.
A federal project to spend $ 495 million on new Radarsat satellites has also fallen behind schedule and seen costs escalate to more than $ 1 billion. Harper announced the project in 2010, saying the satellites would allow Canada to keep a close eye on its Arctic territory.
“We are taking the time to make sure we get this right, that we spend the right amount of money and we develop this kind of shipbuilding expertise in Canada in the long- term, not just for the Arctic offshore patrol vessels, but also for the polar- class icebreaker,” Harper said Thursday in Cambridge Bay when asked about the military spending.
Harper said the patrol vessels are part of the government’s overall shipbuilding strategy, the largest military procurement project in Canada’s history.
“All of our investments here if you look at the total, including the military investments, these are long term, transformative and we’re pursuing them stepbystep,” Harper said.
“It’s critical that we be capable for all kinds of purposes, not just direct military purposes, ( but) sovereignty purposes, research, and search and rescue and other things to be able to access all of our Arctic at all times of the year.”
The likelihood of the military becoming involved in an armed conflict in the Arctic is virtually nil, according to polar politics experts and the Department of National Defence, despite some concerns over Russia beefing up its military presence along its Arctic frontier.
A Department of National Defence briefing note to Defence Minister Peter MacKay said that Canada had nothing to fear from Russia’s creation of new military units for the Arctic.
The note, released to Postmedia News under access to information laws, also said that the beefed up presence in the region — the new units total 10,000 troops — was simply the Russian government trying to secure its borders and, like Canada, looking to exploit natural resources in the North.
“While many observers have commented in the media on Russia’s perceived provocative actions in the Arctic, there has yet to be any serious cause for alarm,” reads the July 2011 briefing note.
However, that has not prevented the military from preparing for other national security scenarios, such as the one that was demonstrated Friday. In the demonstration, a team of special forces troops boarded a “vessel of interest” where a potential terrorist was hiding aboard a tourist ship.
The scenario was one of two staging sites for Operation Nanook, the seventh year the military has conducted a training exercise in the North.
The estimated cost to stage the operation this year — the most complex to date, according to senior military officials — is $ 16.5 million.