Carney outlines $6.7B in Arctic military, infrastructure spending during Iqaluit visit
Announcement includes $6 billion for Arctic radar system; $420 million for Canadian Armed Forces; and $253 million in investments for Nunavut infrastructure
Prime Minister Mark Carney stands with Canadian Rangers after announcing $6.7 billion in Arctic investments in Iqaluit on Tuesday. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Canada is teaming up with Australia to boost Arctic security and will invest in Nunavut’s infrastructure, Prime Minister Mark Carney said in Iqaluit on Tuesday.
“Arctic sovereignty is a strategic priority of our government,” Carney said during a news conference at the Canadian Armed Forces’ Iqaluit Forward Operating Location near the airport.
This visit to Nunavut’s capital was Carney’s first domestic trip since he was sworn in as prime minister Friday.
It followed his whirlwind trip to Europe where he met with French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and had an audience with King Charles.
Tuesday’s announcement includes more than $6 billion for Canada’s Arctic over-the-horizon radar system that will be developed in partnership with Australia. Over-the-horizon radar has the capability to detect targets hundreds of kilometres beyond the scope of ordinary radar.
The federal government will also spend about $420 million for Canadian Armed Forces to have a “greater, sustained and year-round” presence in the Arctic, according to a government news release issued Tuesday.
Carney also announced $253 million for Nunavut infrastructure. That includes.
- $94 million to upgrade power plants in Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven, Igloolik and Iqaluit;
- $74 million for critical housing infrastructure
- $66 million to build, renovate and repair homes; and
- $20 million to Nunavut Nukkiksautiit Corp. for the first phase of its hydroelectricity facility to be constructed outside Iqaluit.
Premier P.J. Akeeagok and Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, welcomed the initiatives with both saying that Inuit needs were “heard” by the federal government.
However, Nunavut NDP MP Lori Idlout said Carney’s announcements show the Liberal government is not willing to invest in northerners.
“It’s frustrating that Canada is promising to invest more in another country’s capabilities rather than its own people’s. How many-fold is that $250 million compared to the $6 billion to work with Australia?” she said, comparing the money for Nunavut infrastructure against the cost of the commitment to work with Australia.
Manitoba MP James Bezan, the Conservative defence critic, called Carney’s visit a “re-announcement” of previously introduced projects with no new money.
It “does nothing to fix years of neglect and state of disrepair our forces are in,” Bezan said in a written statement Tuesday.
Carney’s Arctic security announcement comes at a time of heightened tensions in the Arctic, with calls growing for Canada to do more to secure the region.
In an article for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute released hours before Carney’s announcement, Arctic security expert Alexander Dalziel wrote: “Canada is sleepwalking into Arctic irrelevance. Canadian leaders need to ‘think Arctic’ when they think foreign affairs and defence. It should become a policy reflex.”
The Liberal government announced its Arctic foreign and defence policies in 2024, promising to appoint an Arctic ambassador and spend $81 billion on defence over 20 years.
That funding includes $2.7 billion for northern operational support hubs in Iqaluit, Inuvik and Yellowknife, which was reaffirmed in an announcement by Bill Blair, the minister of national defence, in Iqaluit on March 6.
Carney is the third federal party leader to come to Iqaluit for an Arctic defence announcement in just over a month.
On Sunday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh vowed to establish a military base in Iqaluit as part of his party’s Arctic platform
He said that under an NDP government, Canada would meet the expectation that NATO members spend two per cent of their gross domestic product on defence by 2032.
On Feb. 10 in Iqaluit, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pledged to build a permanent military base in the community within two years if he becomes prime minister.
The proposed base would be big enough to host a Royal Canadian Air Force command unit and to launch and land new F-35 fighter jets and Poseidon P-8 surveillance aircraft.
The base is part of Poilievre’s plan to “take control of our North, secure all of our borders and stand on our own two feet,” Poilievre said.
– With files from Nehaa Bimal
Don’t trust the LIEberals and NDP nevers. All promises and no delivery. We’ve been fooled too many times. If they mean it, build it now otherwise vote against them in the next election
Dear M.L.Z.P.:
You come across as being strongly in favour of Pierre Poilievre, the federal Conservative candidate. Please allow me to provide some comments on Poilievre.
Firstly, Poilievre has a long history of hobnobbing with the superrich, and specifically doing this in a way that demonstrates that he is interested in taking direction from the superrich. This clearly shows that Poilievre is following the playbook of Donald Trump.
And given that Donald Trump is following Project 2025 (as written by Russell Vought and the rest of the extreme-rightwing Heritage Foundation, which is funded by the Koch Brothers Dark Money Donors Trust Atlas Network), it is reasonable to expect that Poilievre, if he becomes the next prime minister, will take Canada down a path that brings us much more inequality and far more corporate power. (By the way, the Atlas Network is active here in Canada too, for example through the Fraser Institute and MacDonald-Laurier Institute, but the level of damage done to Canadian democracy is not yet at the level of what the Atlas Network has so far done in the USA.)
The CEOs of major corporations and the billionaire bankers on Bay Street would be delighted to see Poilievre in power.
Like Trump, Poilievre proposes simple, easy-to-understand (but inherently inappropriate or intrinsically antidemocratic or just plain wrong) answers to complex problems. (To delve into this in detail would require far more room than is available in the comments section of this online newspaper.)
Do you really want Canada to become like the USA under Donald Trump’s second term? If so, then vote for Poilievre. If not, then vote for anyone else.
If you want to do some more digging, here is a useful book to read.
The Poilievre Project: A Radical Blueprint For Corporate Rule, by Martin Lukacs (Breach Books, ISBN 9781069357809, April 2025)
I think this is a book that every Canadian (and especially those who think Poilievre is wonderful) should read.
You must be ecstatic President Donald Trump has come out endorsing Carney Liberals… “I think it’s easier to deal actually with a liberal.”
Putin endorsed Kamala before the election in the same manner. It’s not meant to be an actual endorsement, it’s a tactic to make an enemy appear weak. Just even look at the phrasing, “it’ll be easier to deal with the Liberals”
Make no doubt about it Trump would love to see PP in office because he knows he won’t even have to deal with him, PP will follow orders like the bootlicker that he is.
Thanks, Marcus. Your comments are so off-base I’m inclined to think you are being sarcastic.
Small-business owners, rarely, if ever support the Liberal Party (or the NDs); they support the Conservatives. The vast majority of Liberal Party funding and support comes from all-level government bureaucrats AND the wealthiest, old money. The legacy media (Globe and Mail, CBC, NN) typically supports the LPC.
Individually, the more likely someone is to be antisocial and socialist, the more likely to support the Liberals
Look at yourself in that brief analysis.
For you to be talking about someone else being off-base is wild. “The legacy media (Globe and Mail, CBC, NN) typically supports the LPC”. Can you back that up? Because David Mastracci compiled a whole bunch of data for 17 media outlets and it definitely shows Conservative lean.
Globe and Mail? Liberal in ’93, 2000, 2004; Conservative in ’80, ’84, ’88, ’97, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2015; no endorsement in 2019 or 2021.
The National Post, Toronto Sun, Vancouver Sun, The Province, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, The StarPhoenix, and Calgary Sun have all been Conservative supporters since 2006. PostMedia is American-owned and controls about 90% of all Canadian daily and weekly news, and is incredibly right-leaning and Conservative supporting.
The CBC does not endorse or support parties. You may find they have liberal (small L) views, but that does not mean support.
There is no data on how small business owners vote in Canada that I can find. I’m willing to consider to your source, unless it’s anecdotal.
In 2024, the Conservatives fundraised $41.8M, compared to $15.2M for the Liberals, and $6.3M for the NDP. The average donation to the Conservatives was also more than 50% higher than the Liberals, and almost 90% higher than the NDP. And you’re going to say the Liberals get money from the wealthiest and old-money? Maybe you saw the NDP headline that says, “Majority of Canada’s Richest Donate to the Liberals”, but if you actually read it, it says, “In November, Canadian Business magazine published the list of Canada’s 100 richest families, which, cross referenced with information from Elections Canada and Postmedia’s Follow the Money, reveals that 56 of those have donated to the Liberal Party and 61 have donated to the Conservative Party”. I’m sure you can interpret that. Right?
More content lacking substantiation from S.
I’ll believe it when I see it. That said, half the water plants in the territory hardly work.
But hey, that’s almost a quarter of what they have given to the Toronto subway system over the last five years…
Almost.
That’s what we have territorial government for, didn’t you know? Do you know what devolution means? It means the Federal government trusts us to look after our shit. They also give us billions to do that, but it’s never enough eh?
And the population of Nunavut is almost 1% of the population of Toronto… almost.
Because they are not maintained. End of statement
We have a problem Houston,
So maybe elected wants to say alot ,
Have they gave consultations with the public Inuit what is asked for ,
Nothing will move as many say this has been on the agenda for years yes years,
How can this proceed,
Sign it off with the Feds ASAP and give public informations of the whole scope,
You want to get Elected give us information and don’t wait as weak stumble again and biuld a ture strong north,
Our Nu Government should give us public meetings after meetings…
this isn’t about liberal or conservative. this is about the same reason why canada sold alaska to the states for a dollar. use some common sense lmao
Historical illiteracy is such a problem in our world
Canada didn’t sell Alaska to the US. The US purchased Alaska from Russia
Us bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for 7.2 million dollars. Try to get it right. That’s why reading and studying history is important.
A book, Reportage, by James Corbett released in January tells of the elite class in which Carney circulates. It’s a page turner read revealing truths of the time in which we live.