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The premiers of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut said Thursday that their communities still need basic infrastructure like highways and electricity connections to the rest of Canada, which they argued should be part of the country’s renewed focus on Arctic security and sovereignty.
N.W.T. Premier R.J. Simpson and Nunavut Premier John Main made the case for investing in the North while speaking to the House of Commons foreign affairs committee for their study of Canada’s Arctic strategy.
The study has gained further urgency after U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to take over Greenland, which Main reminded the committee is just 26 km away from Nunavut.
As concerns grow about Trump eying Canada’s Arctic as well, the premiers said further building out infrastructure in their territories’ many remote and Indigenous communities will be key to reinforcing sovereignty.
“I keep on hearing that the Arctic is having a moment,” Main said. “My concern is that that moment will pass, and that what we really need is sustained engagement, sustained investment. You can’t undo decades of underinvestment with a moment. You need to counter that with a sustained, well-planned-out plan to build out the North.”
Asked by Liberal MP Rob Oliphant how northern territories can be more involved in Canada’s efforts to diversify international trade, the premiers made clear their priority is establishing infrastructure and economic connections for their own people first.
“When I hear other jurisdictions talking about how they’re working with other countries, they’re going on trade missions — we’re not there yet. We don’t have highways,” Simpson said.
“I find it difficult to talk about international relations, because we’re still trying to get our foundation built in the North as part of Canada, let alone go out to other countries.”
The highway systems within the territories consist primarily of single-lane gravel or chip-sealed roads. Nunavut has very few roads and is not connected by a highway to the rest of Canada, with many goods having to be shipped in by cargo plane for most of the year.
Ottawa has voiced support for the Arctic Security and Economic Corridor that would include roads connecting Nunavut and the Northwest Territories to the wider Canadian highway system year-round for the first time.
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It would also see the building of new ports for the shipment of critical minerals mined in those territories and the Yukon — requiring well-maintained roads for transporting those minerals.
The project has territorial and private sector backing but has yet to be officially announced by the federal government, which included it in a list of “transformative strategies” last September that could be considered under its major projects law, but requires further development.
Canada’s Arctic foreign policy calls for an enhanced diplomatic presence in the northern territories along with a greater focus on infrastructure investments.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised a year-round military presence in the Arctic as well.
Conservative MP Michael Chong said the lack of paved, all-season, multi-lane highways connecting northern and southern Canada on par with the east-west Trans-Canada Highway “is increasingly revealing the vulnerabilities of our national economy, in light of what’s been happening with the threats that have been coming from our largest partner and ally.”
Both premiers agreed there has been improved engagement with the federal government under Prime Minister Mark Carney, and that northern communities feel their concerns are being heard and addressed.
Ottawa announced in November a $1-billion Arctic infrastructure fund that will support civilian, defence and transportation infrastructure projects.
Simpson said he and the northern premiers discussed the details of the fund with federal Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon in Ottawa earlier Thursday while in the capital for a first ministers’ meeting with Carney.
The joint statement from the meeting said Carney and the premiers “agreed to accelerate strategic investments in Canada’s North.”
Simpson and Main also called on MPs across the country to act as allies for northern communities’ needs, noting each territory has just one federal representative in the House of Commons.
The premiers said those needs go beyond new and expanded infrastructure and the billions of dollars necessary for those projects.
Existing infrastructure for drinking water and wastewater, among other basic necessities, was built in the 1960s and 1970s and will need replacement soon, they added, which will be costly.
Investment and advocacy is also needed to help address youth mental health and addictions and gang violence in several communities, Simpson and Main said.
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