Is there a military base in Inuvik’s future?

Once upon a time, Inuvik hosted hundreds of military personnel. In the late 1980s, operations wound down and with it went that permanent Arctic presence.

While military exercises still take place in Inuvik and the Canadian Armed Forces still have assets in the town, the wheel has turned full circle and national defence leaders are once again looking to Inuvik as a “very important place” in a multi-billion-dollar plan to assert Arctic sovereignty.

Speaking while on a three-day trip to Inuvik this week, national defence minister Bill Blair told Cabin Radio: “We already have great, great ability here, but we see great potential to invest more, to do more here.

“I think we can anticipate that there’ll be significantly more investment here in the region, whether it constitutes a full-time military base here or not.”

Inuvik appears to be at the top of the list of northern communities hoping to be named a northern operational support hub.

Those hubs are a pillar of the defence policy update Canada released earlier this year, which committed $218 million over 20 years to setting them up.

Each hub – there are likely to be five – will “support a greater year-round presence across the Arctic and the North,” and come with what Ottawa calls “multi-use infrastructure that also meets the needs of territories, Indigenous peoples, and northern communities where feasible.”

In other words, being named a northern operational support hub sounds like a lucrative way for any community government to ensure its long-term infrastructure needs are met.

Pressed on when communities will discover if they’re on the list, Blair offered no timeline and suggested a simple list of five selected communities may never emerge.

“We are looking right across the North all the way from Alaska to Greenland and to Labrador. I’ve engaged already quite extensively with the three northern premiers and we are working very closely with Indigenous governments, local governments, making sure we do it in the right place but also in the right way,” the minister said.

“It may not be an announcement of ‘here are the five locations,’ but we are looking very strategically at where our best opportunities are and where the greatest need is.

“Quite frankly, here in the Beaufort Delta, it’s very clear to me that this is an important location strategically. There’s some existing infrastructure, we’ve got great local partners here, and I think this is rather obviously a location that will be given our highest consideration.”

Below, read a transcript of our interview with Blair as he toured Inuvik.

This interview was recorded on August 20, 2024. The transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

Ollie Williams: Your message throughout your trip has been about Inuvik’s importance as a key strategic location. What is it that makes Inuvik so vital in your assessment?

Bill Blair: Part of it is global positioning. One of the things we just recently acknowledged in our new defence policy is the importance of Canada’s far north and the Arctic. For a number of reasons, the Arctic is becoming more strategically important to Canada and in our national defence. Through climate change it’s becoming far more accessible as a result of temperature changes, melting of the permafrost and the opening up of the Arctic Ocean.

But as well, we have very significant responsibilities to Norad and our American partners for North American defence. For decades, Canada perhaps has under-invested in the infrastructure and resources we need to fulfill our responsibilities to defend the continent, defend the North. We acknowledge that, and it’s important that we’re going to have to make some very significant new investments in the infrastructure – not only that the Canadian Armed Forces and our air force are going to need, but also infrastructure that will benefit the people who live in the North.

People might conclude that must surely then mean a larger military presence in Inuvik, a full-time presence. Is that going to mean, eventually, you’re building a base in Inuvik, perhaps as one of the new northern support hubs?

There used to be a base here, actually. It was closed in the 1980s, but the Royal Canadian Air Force has maintained a presence here. They’ve got residential facilities here. They’ve got hangars.

We are investing very significantly already in the Zubko airport and putting in $218 million with the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and the Gwich’in Tribal Council to extend the runway from 6,000 to 9,000 feet. That’s going to be important, because with the new fighter jets we’re purchasing and some of the larger aircraft we know we’re going to have to bring into the region, we’re going to need not just a runway, but facilities for them.

So we’ve begun to make those really very significant investments. We acquired the green hangar, for example, which I think is another strategic asset we’ll be able to utilize. But there’s more investment that needs to be made.

Inuvik is a very important place. We already have great, great ability here, but we see great potential to invest more, to do more here. I think we can anticipate that there’ll be significantly more investment here in the region, whether it constitutes a full-time military base here or not.

When we talk about the northern operational support hubs, we’re talking about strategic placement of new infrastructure, new assets, the ability for people to deploy and train in the region. All of those things are going to take investment.

One of the reasons I came up here to Inuvik is to have conversations with the mayor, with the Gwich’in and IRC. I had dinner last night with the commissioner. I think it’s going to be really important that we engage respectfully and collaboratively with the people who live and work in the region, because we know we want to make some new investments here, but we want it to be beneficial to the people that live here as well – to create job opportunities but also infrastructure in communications and fibre optics, in energy production, in highways and airport runways.

When do you expect to be able to confirm where those northern operational support hubs are going to be?

We have earmarked five opportunities that we’re going to invest in. We are looking right across the North all the way from Alaska to Greenland and to Labrador. I’ve engaged already quite extensively with the three northern premiers and we are working very closely with Indigenous governments, local governments, making sure we do it in the right place but also in the right way.

It may not be an announcement of “here are the five locations,” but we are looking very strategically at where our best opportunities are and where the greatest need is. Quite frankly, here in the Beaufort Delta, it’s very clear to me that this is an important location strategically. There’s some existing infrastructure, we’ve got great local partners here, and I think this is rather obviously a location that will be given our highest consideration.

You alluded to the green hangar in Inuvik that DND previously leased. It had fallen out of use over the past few years, so clearly DND not so long ago didn’t really need that hangar. Now it’s being called a strategic asset. What changed?

A couple of things have changed. First of all, in our new defence policy we’ve seen a renewed focus on our responsibilities to secure the continent, and in particular an acknowledgement that the world’s changing rapidly through climate change, through some of the new technological advancements, and through the actions of some of our potential adversaries, most notably Russia and China. Our North is a new theatre of concern, and therefore an opportunity as well for us to make really significant new investments here.

We’ve already begun that, and one of the big changes, for example, is the investment in the extension of the runway at Zubko airport. It’s going to enable us to bring fighter jets into the region and also land larger aircraft here, and to support that presence we’re going to have to invest in new hangars and new maintenance facilities.

But the runway extension project was announced in 2019 and at that point, there wasn’t much interest in this hangar. So it can’t have been the runway extension.

Well, it isn’t part of the runway extension, but it’s also a refocusing. We’re going to need a lot more infrastructure at the Zubko airport. We’re going to have to invest in new hangars. The commander of the Cold Lake Air Force Base flew up to meet with me yesterday. We went to the green hangar. We looked at what exists there now and there is potential. We can open the doors up and we can store, for example, a Hercules aircraft in there.

I think, a number of years ago, the air force perhaps did not anticipate they were going to get the funding necessary to make the required investments. Through our new defence policy, we’ve made a very significant commitment of nearly $73 billion over the next 20 years and lots of focus, all very clear and strategic focus, on our obligations to defend Canada in the North.

The timeline on the runway project is a late 2027 completion. Are there any other tangible milestones where people are going to be able to see the change coming from these investments?

If they go by the airport, they’ll see the runway extension construction ongoing. The dates that you mentioned, 2027 is when we’ll receive the first of the F-35 aircraft. We’re acquiring 88 of them. A number of them will be deployed in the North, some of them in Cold Lake, some in Comox and the East Coast. To deploy those aircraft, we’ll not just need that runway. We’re going to need new hangars. We’re going to need new facilities.

We were the satellite station just south of town as well, that’s another very important strategic asset for the Government of Canada and for our allies, and we’re going to have to do more there.

Over time, I think the people of the region can anticipate that there’s much more work to be done here, and that we are committed to doing it, but we’re going to do it carefully. We’ve got to plan it out. We’re spending Canadian taxpayer dollars, and I think it’s really important that we get the best value for every dollar we invest of their money.