Front Burner - What does it take to defend Canada’s Arctic?

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

This week, Prime Minister Carney is in Turkey to attend the NATO summit. Ahead of leaving for Ankara, he announced the procurement of 12 submarines from the German company TKMS, in what’s expected to be the largest military procurement deal in Canada’s history.Carney says that these submarines, along with a slew of other military investments, will allow Canada to assert our full sovereignty in the Arctic.Today, we are focusing on the Arctic. Earlier this year – the Liberal government announced a plan to modernize and expand the military’s footprint in the North. This is all in a bid to assert sovereignty in a region where Russia and China’s influence is growing.Anne Shibata Casselman is a science journalist based in B.C. She makes the argument that the path to asserting that sovereignty must put the people who live on the land and have claim to it at the centre. She just wrote a deeply reported piece in Maclean’s about this, called “The Arctic Needs Defending. Canada Isn’t Ready.”For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

You know that feeling when you reach the end of a really good true crime series? You want to know more, more about the people involved, where the case is now, and what it's like behind the scenes. I get that. I'm Kathleen Goldhar and on my podcast Crime Story, I speak with the leading storytellers of true crime to dig deeper into the cases we all just can't stop thinking about. Find crime story wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast. Hey everybody, it's Jamie. So I hope you caught these two episodes that we ran last week, a pair of documentaries about the astronomical amount of money that Canada is on track to spend on the military. We're seeing more and more evidence of that now. Like, for instance, Monday's announcement of what's expected to be this country's largest ever military procurement deal. We're looking to buy 12 submarines from the German company TKMS. The contract is expected to be worth 100,000, billion dollars over a 30 to 50 year lifespan. Mark Carney is attending the NATO summit in Turkey this

week, and before leaving, he talked about how these subs put Canada in a position to help lead the NATO alliance up north. In the Arctic and on NATO's western flank, Canada is taking a leadership role. These new submarines combined with the world's second largest fleet of icebreakers, combined with new aircraft, new radar, are allowing Canada to assert our full sovereignty in the Arctic. The Arctic is what we're going to focus on today. Earlier this year, the liberal government announced a plan to modernize and expand the military's footprint in the Arctic.

In addition to subs and icebreakers and missiles, it's also stuff like updated bases and turning some communities into support hubs for the Army, improvements to runways and roads. This is all in a bid to assert sovereignty in a region where Russia and China's influence is growing. Doesn't hurt that the U.S. has also threatened to annex us. My guest today, though, makes the argument that the path to asserting that sovereignty

must put the people who live on the land and have claimed to it at the center. Their presence, after all, is the reason we can say that it belongs to Canada. And Shabata Castleman is a science journalist based in B.C., who just wrote this really deeply reported piece of claims about all of this. It's called the Arctic Needs Defending. Canada isn't ready. And we wanted to bring her on to talk it all through. Anne, hi, it's great to have you on Frontburner. Thanks so much for coming. Thanks so much for having me. So we'll talk more about threats to Canada's Arctic and whether we're ready for them and what Canada is planning to do up there in a bit.

But I do want to start by better understanding the place first. You took a trip there last August, I believe, to Cambridge Bay, which is a hamlet in Nunavut. The Kearney government recently announced that this would be the location for one of the military's support hubs. And what does it look like there now? So, I mean, just to set the scene, I'm like a full Southern Canadian. I never traveled to Nunavut before reporting this piece. Cambridge Bay is, it's a small community around 1,800 people. End of August is kind of the change in the season. So the flowers had just finished blooming and the landscape, the leaves on the landscape were sort of turning orange.

The Arctic waters were like this bright Caribbean blue. Like already it was upending so many of the images as a southerner you have of the north. And the Arctic is being white and frozen and kind of harsh and forbidding. And the community itself is so accepting and warm and hospitable and welcoming. And having said that for all the warmth and the generosity that was extended to me, I sort of quickly heard and saw what these sort of material infrastructure deficits that so many of these fly-in, fly-out communities across Nunavut, across the Inuit homeland, experienced day to day. So, you know, the airstrip that I landed on was a short gravel runway that doesn't have jet service. so you can only land turboprop planes so that jacks up the price of seats. You fly in your fresh fruit, your fresh veg, all of a sudden those costs go up.

You know, there are no paved roads. Most of the homes, I mean, the vast majority of homes have their water delivered by truck, and their sewage is taken away by truck. So all these little things that I saw, they created hindrance for the community to thrive. Yeah, and just whatever. Some of the biggest challenges. I mean, and you've gone through a couple already, but I just wonder if you could elaborate for me the biggest challenges that Northern Airspace.

When I was in town, I heard a lot about housing. There just isn't enough housing. And the housing that is there is in very poor repair. And of course, you can't have homelessness in, you know, in an Arctic community. And so the way that people handle this is they basically just squish in to home. So it's not so overcrowding is a huge issue, which of course leads to health issues, mental health issues, just well-being. You know, the mayor of Cambridge Bay, Wayne Gregory, was telling me about how he started to notice these people sort of walking circuit. around town at all hours of the day. And he didn't really know what he was seeing until someone said,

oh yeah, those people are hotbedding. And he was like, what's that? And then it was explained to him that because of the overcrowding where you have, you know, many families, I heard of one student's home that had 22 family members under one roof. There just aren't enough mattresses. And so people take shifts to use the mattresses to rest. And when it's not their turn to sleep in that one mattress and let's say, you know, it's at odd hours, then they'll walk around town to buy the time. So I heard a lot about housing. And actually, you know, the wait list for subsidized public housing in Cambridge Bay, it's like over 150 families are on that list. And this is, in a community of like less than a thousand homes.

I also heard about just the cost of groceries. You know, price inflation, all of us have seen it go up. In the North or in the Arctic, it's risen at twice the rate it has in the south of Canada. So there are some federal subsidies in place, Nutrition North, which I heard was like vastly unpopular. But I saw a box of pamper's that I could get on Amazon and Vancouver for $27 selling for $51 or like a family-sized box of Cheerio is going for $18. Wow, wow, wow. Yeah, so food poverty is a big issue. Could this influx of military investment, this $35 billion, according to the Liberals plan, that they want to put into the infrastructure up in the

Arctic address some of the challenges around access to housing, transportation that you just talked about. You know, I'm thinking about this plan to turn some of these communities into, like, support hubs for the Army, for example. Like, what could that do? There is, it's almost like a Venn diagram of sort of community needs and interests and defense needs and interests. And there is some overlap, but there's certainly not 100%. So, as you pointed out, so Cambridge Bay was recently announced along with Rankin Inlet to be a northern operational support node, and this will flow some funds through defense. And the defense has been meeting with the towns, like with the mayor and council in town, to sort of hear what their needs are. So I think the mayor is very hopeful

that the town might actually see paved runway, hangers. We also discussed about a garage, which would be dual use, that some of the garage bays would be just allocated for the Canadian Armed Forces, for when they're here, if they have something or a vehicle that needs warm in order to fix. and we would also have more garage space for our water trucks and our sewage trucks. So these are sort of humble, but I would say material for the community increases. But note that there are only two of these support nodes announced, right? And there are 52 Inuit communities across the Inuit homeland.

So in some sense, this is just a drop in the bucket. And when you look at the billions that is flowing to essentially catch up our sort of stagnated and outdated missile defense and NORAD investments, I mean, a lot of that stuff won't necessarily benefit these communities directly. Right. The submarines, too, for example. Certainly. And one interesting thing that I think Southern Canadians, sort of don't appreciate is that a lot of the defense infrastructure that's going into the Arctic. I mean, the Arctic is Canada's northern flank and it's North America's northern flank.

And so this is really continental defense that's getting built up and upgraded across the Inuit homeland in their backyards. It's not necessarily to protect Inuit communities themselves. It's to protect like targets, populated targets or infrastructure targets. in North America in the south of Canada. And you're reporting, you really do draw this direct link between this underinvestment in the Arctic civilian infrastructure and broader threats facing the region. You wrote that, quote,

the most urgent threat facing the north is not a military incursion from a foreign power. Rather, the far greater risk is from gray zone threats. covert scheme seeking to undercut Canada's strategic interests and advance foreign political or economic ambitions? And what do you mean by that exactly? Just elaborate for me. I mean, I think Canada is experiencing a very nationalistic moment for many reasons that have come together at this point, whether you look at NATO, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and of course the rhetoric that we're hearing from our southern neighbors in the same.

States. At the same time, we know that the Arctic, not just the Canadian Arctic, I'm talking about sort of the circumpolar Arctic, has been identified by China especially to be very strategic in the coming decades. As the sea ice continues to retreat, China's very interested in those Arctic shipping lanes and, of course, what minerals lie on the seabeds. And so, Canada's. And so, Canada is sort of orienting to the north as well. I think when the public sees all these images of these incredible northern military exercises, we sort of implicitly get the sense that, oh, we must be preparing for an invasion. But, you know, you talk to experts and experts have testified to Parliament about this. We are not at risk of a foreign invasion in the Arctic.

what is happening, the term is hybrid warfare or gray zone threats. So these are actions, some of them are sort of irritants to just add friction to a country's national interests or strategic interests. Sometimes they seek to sort of undermine or embarrass a target nation. At other times, they are disinformation campaigns, let's say, wage. over social media, to seed certain narratives, to divide a population against their government, to undermine democracies. And so what we're seeing in the North isn't a foreign invasion. We're seeing foreign influence. We're seeing foreign-led cyber attacks attempts to secure

mining assets. CIS has been recently testifying this past February. Their concerns are around economic interference. So I guess all this to say that circa 2026, the way that countries hostile and rival states are targeting Canada isn't sort of the straight-up invasion or warfare that I think people know of from our history books, it really does look different. it's more sort of this like covert scheming 40 chess moves, as it were. And in that context, the Arctic is extremely vulnerable because the people there already experience great socioeconomic inequity with the South of Canada.

There is this big gap between the North and the South, and that gap poses a rich vein for our adversaries to exploit. You know that feeling when you reach the end of a really good true crime series? You want to know more, more about the people involved, where the case is now, and what it's like behind the scenes. I get that. I'm Kathleen Goldhar and on my podcast crime story, I speak with the leading storytellers of true crime to dig deeper into the cases we all just can't. stop thinking about. Find crime story wherever you get your podcasts. I just wonder if you could kind of take me through a concrete example, perhaps real, but also hypothetical, of what people

are worried about here. One example revolves around high-speed internet. So the North is not connected to high-speed internet. And back in 2019, Huawei, I don't know if you remember, Huawei was making a move to basically roll out 4 and 5G internet across Canada. So Huawei announced that they were partnering with a Canadian telecoms company and an Inuit Development Corp to bring high-speed internet to all of Nunavut. And of course, this was incredibly welcome news for communities. I mean, you know, having fast internet isn't just like scrolling Facebook or, um, or looking at YouTube. I mean, all of a sudden, you can have like remote learning opportunities, remote training. You can even beam in like healthcare consults.

So not having fast internet really is a considerable hindrance for these communities. Um, but of course, if Huawei's partnering and putting in this hardware, the question had to be asked, like, is this a security vulnerability that we're sort of building into the north? And so a couple years later, the CBC actually reported that CESIS, our intelligence or national intelligence service, had cautioned Natan Obit, the president of the ITK, about how foreign interests were seeking to gain a toll hold in the Inuit Homeland, through infrastructure investments as well as some scientific research. And then, of course, finally in 2022, the feds banned Huawei, their 4G and 5G.

Tonight, we're intent to exclude Huawei and ZTE from our 5G network, full stop. A decision put on hold for three years, largely due to China's detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavar. There is a need to ensure that we prohibit. the installation of their equipment and technology within the 5G network given the potential risks that they posed to national security. So it sort of became dead in the water. But what's so interesting to me is that this nevertheless left these remote communities, it was like a lose-lose for them because they still didn't have high-speed internet.

And actually what you see now is a lot of people who can afford it have adopted Starlink, which, you know, I think it was in 2020. maybe, the New Yorker in the Wall Street Journal, were reporting that Elon Musk, who owns Starlink, was in regular and direct contact with Vladimir Putin. So it's almost like this security vulnerability with Huawei was identified, but then no one else really stepped up to deliver communities' high-speed internet. And actually just this year, the feds made an announcement that they are partnering

with a company to deliver high-speed internet to all the communities across Nunavut. And if we want to build Canada Strong, we also need to build the North Strong. That means making sure people living in northern, rural, remote, and indigenous communities have the same opportunities as people living in the southern urban centers.

But it's not going to be completely, until 2029. So I find this such a good example of how there are security vulnerabilities through these foreign investments. If the Canadian government and Canadian businesses aren't stepping in to fill these gaps, they can be filled in by companies whose interests might not completely align with the national interest of Canada. And I know you referenced, well, you've referenced a few times. for an investment as a concern. And I remember in like 2020, right, the Shandong gold mining, a Chinese state-owned firm,

tried to buy this mine, which is southwest of Cambridge Bay, and the company that owned it, right? And this was actually blocked by the federal government. Just like another example of China kind of trying to assert soft power in the region, fair? There was definitely a period of time where China was very actively seeking to invest and own mineral and mining deposits across Greenland and in Canada. And this sort of came to a head, like you say, in 2020 when Shandong gold mining, a Chinese state-owned mining company was trying to secure and own this mine on the Northwest Passage. And actually I went and visited it. That was the first time that our investment Canada Act was used to block the sale to a foreign power of a mine on the grounds of national security. I mean, the mine itself is like, it's located in Hope Bay, which is about 150 kilometers away, like just sort of southwest-ish of Cambridge Bay.

but Cambridge Bay houses a huge North Warning site as part of our NORAD missile defense. So, yeah, I think probably for, there were probably a lot of reasons that the Canadian government looked at that acquisition and said, you know what, it wouldn't be strategic for us to let it pass. And in that instance, it sort of wound up being a great story because the mine was bought by Egniko Eagle, who already owns and operates two other gold mines in Nunavut. They've announced a formal partnership with National Defense to essentially share their know-how of how they operate and build out infrastructure. But again, it raises the question of, well, this is still on Enuit homeland and Inuit land. You know, where does that, where does that partnership come in?

let's say if the goldmine company and national defense are partnering up. Yeah. And is there not a clear path for that? You know, in theory there is. So Trudeau and Obed started up the Inuit Crown Partnership Committee, which met several times a year. And it was a way for Inuit leadership and the federal government and the PMO ministers to meet and essentially identify joint priorities. I want to thank the government for working constructively with Inuit. We have come a long way, whether it's in relation to housing funds, working on implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People's legislation,

but also doing the work of the partnership between Inuit and the Crown. And I think over the past year or so since Carney's become Prime Minister, the ITK has sort of seen that governance wither on the vine a little bit. To the point that actually in late June of this year at an Arctic Security Conference, Obed was saying, If the partnership with Canada is not on the table, if we are not going to be respected partners, then should we not be looking for other partners as well to uphold our interests?

So that sort of speaks to. I think a regression in the relationship. In early July, the prime minister, Obed, and Inuit leadership as well as ministers met in Kuziak, and I think they sort of ironed out some of that stuff. Dear friends, members of the cabinet, one of the largest cabinet delegations to come to ICPC. I think it is the largest in Inuit Nunagat underscores how vital this table is. not just how vital today's meeting is, but how vital the work that we will carry forward from today's discussions. I would like to thank... So it looks like the relationships sort of back on the table, and they have identified some joint

priorities, namely universal food vouchers for Inuit families so they can feed and diaper their children. Updating and adjusting subsidies, but truly looking... and implementing a systems-led approach. And again, respecting the food systems here, the harvest systems here. Lowering tuberculosis rates among Inuit, which are like 37 times that of non-Indigenous Canadians. We're backing Inuit-led approaches to eliminate tuberculosis,

prevent TB, and to accelerate diagnosis and treatment. Again, an area, it's not the sole answer, where we can leverage the resources that we're putting in elsewhere. So we'll see. But I guess it's hard because there is a sense of urgency. National Defense has a lot of catching up to do. In terms of building out infrastructure, you know, I heard someone describe it as they're trying to build the plane while flying it.

But I think it's also clear that the modus operandi of Carney's government coming out of the gate has not been to really identify deep meaningful partnership with Inuit as a priority. There is still time for us to insert the human, the community element into this next wave of militarization in our homeland so that we don't repeat the mistakes of the past and we don't create undue burden in our society. We've seen this kind of level of concentration on the Arctic and big swings at militarization in the Arctic before.

There were similar efforts during the Cold War. I just, what happened back then and what lessons do you think that the current federal government could glean from it? Gosh. I mean, you know, someone who is in community could, of course, speak to this so much better. What I heard is that, you know, the Cold War era of defense buildout across the Arctic was really imposed on Enuit in their homelands. So actually, a lot of the runways in Inuit communities were built by Americans in the Cold War era. The due line, the distant early warning system that

was built post-Second World War to warn of incoming Russian missiles was built within two years, mostly by American contractors. So it was very colonial. And the dewline essentially became obsolete as the missile technology improved. And so a lot of these sites were just abandoned. And in fact, they posed huge environmental hazards as they leached like oils, heavy metals, there was garbage on the land. And so the environmental remediation that the government had to do to clean it up, it was the largest environmental remediation the government of Canada had ever undertaken at that point in history. So all this to say, I think it left behind a bit of a toxic legacy, certainly in the homeland. And I mean, what I heard from Inuit is it can't be like that this time.

You know, as our homeland is being militarized, history cannot repeat itself. And perhaps sort of the most extreme and dehumanizing example of that is the relocation of Inuit into the high Arctic, so Greece Fjord and Resolute Bay, where there were no Inuit communities. and the Canadian government relocated Inuit from northern Quebec, you know, thousands of kilometers away from their homes and sort of left them with cloth tents lined with newspapers in these remote, remote areas simply to assert Canadian sovereignty on the land because they were worried about Greenland vying for that territory. So, again, I think history is very instructive.

At the end of the day, you know, you can't secure the Arctic if the communities themselves who give us Canadian sovereignty. I mean, we don't have sovereignty over the Arctic because we have a North Warning system there. Or, you know, like some troops and Yellowknife, we have sovereignty over the Arctic because of the people who live there and who's, you know, know, it's being their homeland for millennia. And if we're not listening and if Canada's unable to partner and really work with the people whose land it is to build it in the way that they see they need it built, what kind of lasting sovereignty do we have? Okay.

That feels like a good end. Anne, thank you so much for this. Thank you. Thank you. All right. That is all for today. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening. Talk to you tomorrow. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.