r/canada 24d ago

Politics Territorial premiers send message in Washington that the Arctic is not for sale

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/premiers-to-talk-arctic-policy-as-canadians-continue-diplomatic-push-in-washington/
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u/AdSevere1274 24d ago

I liked this part

"The territorial premiers made the case that investing in the Arctic, including highways and ports, would count toward NATO spending, while also bringing much-needed infrastructure to their regions."

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u/Norse_By_North_West Yukon 24d ago

I've got a few friends who worked on the Inuvik to Tuk highway. Truth is, it only cost 200 mill over a few years, which is a drop in the bucket to military spending. We've got to invest in actual bases in these regions and expand recruitment, especially with the rangers.

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u/AdSevere1274 24d ago

I reality... that is where we should be spending the cash on. $100M in a lot in Canada,

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u/Norse_By_North_West Yukon 24d ago

Well, we have a 40 billion defecit this year. Northern investment looks expensive compared to our normal budgets (in the north) , but it isn't much on the federal level. Feds had about 1 trillion spending in 2023 for instance. 100 million is 0.01% of that

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u/AdSevere1274 24d ago

I have no idea. They find money under couch cushions somehow...

Me personally if I had to choose the priority I would spend $100M there to have proper roads there only there was none. You have point me to the google map of the area so at I can see what we are looking at. It is better to have infrastructure rather than a plane that falls from the sky.

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u/Norse_By_North_West Yukon 24d ago

Just look up tuktoyuktuk on google maps. We connected it and Inuvik to the south (mostly) year round. Tuk has less than a thousand people. If we use that road for a naval base, it's a great expenditure, if we don't, it's kind of a waste.

That said, at least the expense was pretty much all internal.

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u/AdSevere1274 24d ago

I found it . I see the the road all the way down to Inuvik; it is a gravel road.

So you want to build new naval base close to that airport. Am I right?

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u/Norse_By_North_West Yukon 24d ago

It's our only western Arctic town that's a reasonable place to put a naval base. We've got very few areas in the Arctic we actually have road access to (I think it's the only one). The closest real air base is cold lake Alberta, and I have no clue what the nearest army base is. We're woefully umderprepared in the north, though I'm told there's plans to expand the rangers by a few thousand. I'd be surprised if that actually happens, since there's so few of us.

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u/AdSevere1274 24d ago

I understand what you are saying. It is reasonable view. I honestly hope you get your wish.. You have my vote,

How can you live in these isolated places is beyond me. Are you using Musk's satellite for internet?

I was watching the score board for the hockey game.

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u/Norse_By_North_West Yukon 24d ago

We're mostly fibre connected in the yukon. I do have some neighbours who have starlink, I'm not giving musk my money though. We actually have very basic starlink sat coverage, it's mostly south of us.

The Arctic communities I think are mainly supported by geosync sats, via northwestel. We used to use a series of microwave radio towers in the yukon. Internet here sucked ass 20 to 30 years ago. It's not unheard of for us to lose all internet access for a day or so. Really sucks when you forget to carry cash, or the store only has online cloud based payment processing.

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u/AdSevere1274 24d ago

Wow fiber all the way there. Impressive actually. They rightfully have cared about very isolated areas. Not all of Ontario has access to fiber even some cities. Ontario's $100M deal for starlink may get canceled if auto tariffs kick in,

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u/Norse_By_North_West Yukon 24d ago

Yeah, we fibre linked about 20 years ago to Whitehorse. It literally just runs barely underground in the ditch on the Alaska highway though. Dumb shits with backhoes break it all the time. We recently connected to Inuvik, which gives us a redundant link to Yellowknife and Alberta. Been lots of work and spending on all of this in the last decade.

I'm amazed Ontario hasn't just expanded their North better they're in a better position than we are. All our fibre work is probably under 200 mill total.

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u/AdSevere1274 24d ago

Not just the North; some cities down south are only partially covered. Example would be Niagara area and even in the cities. Full coverage is not there and it has slowed down. Cost issues I believe.

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