Territorial capitals look to form ‘united front’ to advocate for defence spending
Proposed memorandum of understanding would focus on infrastructure, security and collaboration
The mayors of Canada’s northern capitals are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding later this month, aimed at ensuring their cities benefit from military spending planned for the North.
“We’re not being an afterthought at this point, but it’s making sure that we’re doing our job to make sure that doesn’t change either,” said Yellowknife Mayor Ben Hendriksen.
Among other things, the proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU) would commit the three cities to working together to advocate for new infrastructure, and collaborate on Arctic security and defence readiness.
“A lot of it ties into things that we’re already advocating for,” Hendriksen said. “It’s the nuts and bolts of how a city operates, things like water and sewer infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, making sure that we have the land.”
He said that under Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government, there has been a focus on dual-use defence infrastructure for both civilian and military use, so conversations have been very positive so far.
Yellowknife city manager Stephen Van Dine said the federal government has been giving the city information to prepare and identify needs, such as water and sewer capacity.
He said there are also budgeting considerations for the city that would come with new dual-use infrastructure, since “shared use means shared cost.”
Van Dine said he expected those costs would be borne by the city and territorial government, which requires talks to make sure all are aligned in their expectations.
“Combined and shared-use facilities does put options on the table that didn’t exist before for us,” he said.
He gave the example of the city’s aging garage, which is on a site that could potentially be used for a different purpose, especially if there were federal investment in it.
Van Dine said priority areas would also be updating the city’s fire facilities, bringing water and sewer service to parts of the city that don’t already have it, and improving power-generating capacity to avoid outages like the one seen last week.
The federal government had been scheduled to announce Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy this week, but the announcement was postponed following the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.
Hendriksen said the city has been keeping an eye out for the announcement.
“We’re interested to see what that looks like and what the impacts are for Yellowknife specifically, of course, but also the North more broadly, in the Arctic region more broadly,” he said.
‘In one united front’
Both Iqaluit and Whitehorse city councils have already voted unanimously in favour of signing the proposed memorandum of understanding. Yellowknife council will vote next week.
Kimberly Smith, deputy mayor of Iqaluit, said the proposed pact is a step in the right direction.
“At this point in the world, I think it’s really important that the North show that we are together in all this, in one united front,” she said.
Smith said she hopes the MOU will help secure new infrastructure funding in Iqaluit, as the northern support hub is expected to be built in the Nunavut capital to help support the military.
“That all comes with an infrastructure cost right? There’s sewer upgrades, there’s water upgrades, there’s power requirements. And these are things we can’t necessarily do alone to support a federal government initiative,” she said.
“We are going to need the investment to make it better for everyone. If we are going to do these operations in the Arctic, there needs to be benefits to residents as well.”
The proposed three-year MOU also calls for deeper ties between the federal government and the northern capital cities to advance Arctic sovereignty and defence, including through early engagements on Canadian Armed Forces activities and NORAD operations.
The MOU is expected to be signed by the three mayors at the Arctic Summit conference happening in Whitehorse from Feb. 23 to 25.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Greenland tensions sharpen focus on Arctic infrastructure gaps in Canada, Eye on the Arctic
Denmark: Denmark, Greenland leaders meet Merz, heading to Paris to shore up support, Reuters
Finland: Greenland clash left a mark on EU-US relations says Finnish PM, Yle News
Greenland: New Italy Arctic policy adds U.S. Greenland ambitions to growing Arctic competition narrative, Eye on the Arctic
Iceland: NATO chief to Arctic Allies: “We’re all frontline states now,” as Iceland’s role grows, Eye on the Arctic
Norway: “We want to be Europe’s most integrated region in terms of defence”, The Independent Barents Observer
Russia: Russia claims first-ever North Pole aerial refuelling, TASS reports, Reuters
Sweden: Swedish military intelligence on the great power rivalry over Greenland, Radio Sweden
United States: Rubio says technical talks with Denmark, Greenland officials over Arctic security have begun, The Associated Press
