The Canadian government has purchased a strategically located aircraft hangar in Inuvik, N.W.T., for $8.6 million — a move that’s being met with relief by northerners and experts on Arctic security who were alarmed by foreign interest in the facility.
“I think it’s the best idea the government of Canada has had in a long time,” said Clarence Wood, Inuvik’s mayor.
The 21,000-square-foot hangar, which went up for sale two years ago, was previously leased by the Department of National Defence, a long-standing arrangement that ended in 2021 when the department cancelled its lease. The government reportedly came under pressure from the U.S. to buy the facility after it went up for sale, because of apparent Russian and Chinese interest in the site.
Former Nunavut senator Dennis Patterson, long an advocate for better Arctic security, told CBC that during his time on the Senate, he was frustrated by the lack of attention paid to the issue. He pointed to a study of it by a Senate committee that involved a visit to Inuvik, crediting that as something that helped Canada “wake up” to the strategic significance of the hangar.
“I’ve been shouting into the wilderness on this issue,” he said.
@girlfreddy ok thats much more clear. i am with you on that. I sit here in what’s left standing of a NORAD air base and up the road from what was a Pinetree Line Station. Sure, things have changed and become more portable, but we would be sadly unprepared ; not only in a military threat, but also in a weather or other related catastrophe. we would be blind and deaf . we cant place responsibility on the big telcos. our interesrs wouls conflict. wemust keep infrastructure