Carney earmarks $35B to bolster defence in Canada’s North
Grays Bay Road and Port project, Arctic Economic and Security Corridor referred to Major Projects Office; forward-operating hubs coming to Iqaluit, Resolute Bay
Prime Minister Mark Carney stands with Canadian Rangers in Iqaluit after a funding announcement in March 2025. Carney outlined an updated plan Thursday for $35 billion in Arctic spending. (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Putting two Nunavut megaprojects on Canada’s list of nation-building projects is good news for the North and the country, said the head of the company behind the Grays Bay Road and Port Project.
“It really demonstrates a different recognition from times past that there’s this infrastructure gap north and south that needs to be addressed,” Brendan Bell said in a phone interview Friday.
Bell was in Yellowknife where Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Thursday the federal government will spend $35 billion to bolster Canada’s defence in the North.
Both the Grays Bay Road and Port project and the Arctic Security and Economic Corridor are being referred to the federal government’s Major Projects Office.
Carney’s Liberal government created that office last year to fast-track infrastructure projects that are deemed to be of national importance.
The Grays Bay project is a decades-old plan that would include a 227-kilometre road running from the Jericho diamond mine, 420 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, to Grays Bay on Coronation Gulf, which is 200 kilometres east of Kugluktuk connecting to a deepsea port.
The portion of the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor that Carney referred to the Major Projects Office is a proposed all-season road. The $1-billion proposed road would run approximately 400 kilometres from the Slave Geological Province mineral region north of Great Slave Lake north to the Nunavut border. That’s where it would connect with a future Grays Bay Road.
“We will have the first all-season road connecting Nunavut to our national highway system,” Carney added.
One of Canada’s defence needs is a deepsea port in the Arctic Ocean. The Grays Bay project would address that need.
Bell said Friday he was “thrilled” by news the project is being referred to the Major Projects Office.
There is still a lot of work to do to get permits, environmental assessments and private funding, he said.
West Kiktikmeot Resources Corp., expects the federal government will fund 75 per cent of the project, with the remaining 25 per cent privately funded.
By Carney making it clear the federal government intends for these projects to move forward, it will make it easier for West Kitikmeot Resources to get buy-in from private investors.
Dennis Patterson, a former Nunavut senator, who has advocated for years for various versions of the Grays Bay Roads project over 40 years, called Carney’s announcement “a great step forward,” adding he is “very optimistic” it will come to fruition.
Projects of this magnitude can take decades to complete,Patterson said. The right “chemistry” among federal, territorial, Indigenous, environmental and local partners is needed for them to succeed, he added.
Nunavut Premier John Main said the territorial government has maintained its conditional support for the project, which must meet environmental assessment standards.
“That being said, we’re excited to see Inuit-led major projects like the Grays Bay Road and Port project moving forward or taking another step,” Main Main told reporters at a Friday press conference in Iqaluit.
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout, who recently left the NDP to cross the floor to the governing Liberals, said Friday she was too busy transitioning to her new party to discuss the government’s announcement.
Most of the funding Carney announced – $32 billion – will go toward military forward operating locations in Iqaluit, Yellowknife, Inuvik and Goose Bay. It will involve airfield upgrades, new hangars, ammunition and fuel facilities, and warehousing, a news release from the prime minister’s office announced.
Another $2.7 billion is earmarked for operational support hubs in Resolute Bay and Whitehorse and smaller operational support “nodes” in Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay.
Airports in Rankin Inlet and Inuvik are getting $294 million in upgrades as well.
“This is a generational plan to build and connect the North, to bring security, prosperity, and opportunity to workers and families,” Carney said Thursday.
Carney, don’t sign any contracts until after NTI President elections. We need for those contracts going through NTI for benefit of all inuit and Canada.
NTI will just hoard the money if they get any of the contracts
Yes don’t give the contracts to NTI give the contracts to JV company’s in Quebec, and all their potato company’s, make Quebec great.
You don’t know the future, it could be time now to spend that ‘hoard’ of money.
What more $100 gift cards! lol
Carney’s doing a great job. He recognizes (like everybody should) that the Canadian economy has been falling behind in productivity for a loooong time. I’m sure he doesn’t want to have to put the government into a high-deficit situation, but at the point we’re at it’s pretty much needed as an investment to boost productivity.
He’s forcing bloated federal departments to cut their operational (wasteful) spending while putting big money into capital projects. In the same way that the Canadian Pacific Railway construction in the late 1800s opened massive potential for the national economy, Carney is working to build infrastructure like the Gray’s Bay Road and Port, potential Churchill port expansion, the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor, Mackenzie Valley Highway, new nuclear reactors, increasing capacity at the Contrecoeur Terminal, and more. He may even get a pipeline one day.
This is transformational change that will open up a massive amount of potential for foreign and domestic investment in Canada, amounting to many new good-paying jobs and a stronger economy.
Lol. Thanks for my morning laugh.
The last decade the federal government has invested in the north like no other government has, hundreds and hundreds of millions in new funding and restoring funding that were cut,
I’m glad Trudeau and Carney don’t waste it on those stupid ads Canada action plan, more than half of federal funding for projects and programs went to ads such as the Canada action plan ads.
I didn’t vote Liberal last election but next election I will be,