Vanguard Magazine

a arctIc 26 JUNE/JULY 2017 www.vanguardcanada.com by col Pierre Leblanc (ret'd) I n 2007, the Harper government promised to refurbish a mining instal- lation in Nanisivik into a deep-water berthing naval facility to support arctic operations. Over the years, the scope of the program was reduced to a simple refu- elling facility which is still not operational. It may be time to revisit the plan altogether in favor of improving the more useful and extensive federal facilities in Resolute Bay. The facilities at Nanisivik are over 100 ki- lometers from the Northwest Passage and could not accommodate other sensors to monitor maritime activity in the Passage. The runway supporting the site was closed in 2011 in favor of the Arctic Bay airport some 30 kilometers away. The road be- tween the airport and the berthing facility will not be maintained in the winter and will be very expensive to maintain in the summer for limited use. On several occasions, I recommended that Resolute Bay be developed as a major government arctic security hub. Global warming continues to make the waters of the Arctic Archipelago more accessible to maritime traffic. The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that in 2016 there were several monthly records in terms of lost sea ice. Between 2000 and 2015, the number of full transits of the Northwest Passage has grown approxi- mately by 400 per cent. At least 13 cruise ships plan to visit the Arctic Archipelago, including Crystal Serenity which will again transit the Northwest Passage with over 1,500 people on board, raising concerns about our ability to deal with a potential large search and rescue operation. It has also been reported that the Chinese gov- ernment has published a book on how to navigate the Northwest Passage, a clear in- dication that they plan to do so when it be- comes more and more accessible. Clearly maritime activity continues to increase. It would be useful to review once more why Resolute Bay could be developed as a federal security hub in the Arctic. It is centrally located in the middle of the Arc- tic Archipelago and sits on both the classi- cal Northwest Passage and the most used of the seven possible transit routes. From there it would be easier to monitor activity in the Arctic as well as support search and rescue, environmental responses and safety and security operations. Resolute Bay already has a number of federal assets in place. These provide an excellent base from which to develop an imposing security hub located at the geo- graphic centre of Canada's Arctic Archipel- ago. Furthermore, Resolute Bay is located on the southern edge of Cornwallis Island where the Northwest Passage is only 33 ki- lometers wide. Any surface or subsurface vessel using the Northwest Passage would have to sail past Resolute Bay. While ves- sels could potentially use the very narrow strait between Somerset Island and Boothia Peninsula to avoid detection, the narrow- ness of this strait would discourage most, and it could easily be monitored remotely from Resolute Bay. Resolute Bay needs to be developed as a multi-departmental facility that would in- nanisivik VErSUS Resolute

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