Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 21/00) - The quiet and perhaps somewhat lonely Northern landscape is unassuming and still.

The sky is decorated by dancing Northern Lights at night and during the day the clouds stretch for miles over the quiet tundra. The Arctic Ocean and its archipelago of islands is blanketed by layers of snow and ice for much of the year.

This peaceful image of the North may soon change.

Over the next 20 years, say staff at the Canadian Armed Forces Northern Area (CFNA) headquarters, dramatic changes will turn the sleeping North into a land of strategic and economic importance.

The sky will be crisscrossed by the vapour trails of commercial jetliners looking for faster, cheaper routes to Europe and Asia.

The land will be pierced by gas wells, laced by pipelines and plucked for diamonds and valuable minerals.

The ice that has shielded the Arctic Ocean from shipping could even start to pull back, realizing the centuries-old dream of shipping through the Northwest Passage.

These changes are positive for airlines searching out shorter routes from North America to Europe through an open Russian airspace. But the Northern military sees a potential for major air disasters and a wait of up to 15 hours for help from Trenton, Ont. for search and rescue.

An open Northwest Passage would significantly cut travel time and save millions but creates jurisdictional and environmental concerns.

Industry attracts potential environmental mishaps and in the case of the lucrative mining of diamonds, organized criminal activity.

Facing the future

Col. Pierre Leblanc, former commander of the CFNA, studied these emerging issues during his five years on the job. Before his retirement, he drove them home to his superiors in Ottawa and the Vice-Chief of Defence Staff.

That let to an independent study in the spring, resulting in recommendations on how to change military policies here.

"I feel reasonably comfortable that I'm leaving at a time when what I've started will continue," said Leblanc, who has recently accepted a position as project executive with Diavik Diamond Mines.

"A lot of these things have been driven at the national level and that's good. The studies will produce options, all of which are going to be costed and that's more movement than I expected."

New commander, new changes

Sovereignty and security in the North are getting serious attention from the National Defence headquarters.

The new Northern commander, Col. Kevin McLeod, said his gut-feeling tells him to expect some significant changes in the Northern military by the end of the year.

"I think we'll see substantial progress made ... on some of the issues," he said.

McLeod is talking about 11 issues addressed in the directive (See fact file) from Ottawa.

"If the Chief of Defence Staff said, 'we've got enough money to solve one of these issues, which one would it be?', I would say increase the Ranger capability and activity level because I think that's reinforcing success. That's putting capable eyes and ears into areas we don't normally go," said McLeod.

"My second one would be the information sharing with radar (technology), because then I could find out what's going on and send the Ranger patrol to go take a look. Those are my two top priorities."

Further discussion will be continued on the directive in November between the CFNA and Department of National Defence.