Terry Kruger
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 30/01) - Canada's map includes the Arctic. It's Col. Kevin McLeod's job to ensure the Maple Leaf flies high over that land.

He's in Ottawa this week for meetings with the chief of defence staff, presenting his plan for giving Canadian Forces Northern Area the resources defence planners believe are necessary.

Col. Kevin McLeod relaxes in his office at Canadian Forces Northern Area headquarters in Yellowknife. He's responsible for ensuring the Arctic stays Canadian. - Terry Kruger/NNSL photo

Those plans will go to commanders of Canada's army, navy and air force for review. While McLeod won't discuss specifics, he has indicated they could include deploying Canada's navy to ice-free areas, use of submarines and other assets, including additional personnel.

In a capability study filed in December 2000, CFNA identified the need for additional personnel and equipment, improved airlift capability, an icebreaker and increased intelligence and surveillance assets.

On the wish list are satellites and radar and undersea sonar networks to monitor the Northwest Passage.

Already, CFNA has been given the go-ahead to bring in three new staff, and has received tentative approval to bring in another 15 when office space and housing become available.

The additions are important, says McLeod, to boost CFNA's intelligence and information gathering capabilities. "In a perfect world, we would know where every bulldozer and every cache of gasoline is in the North."

Adding personnel to the Yellowknife headquarters is just one of the changes that may be coming for the military in Canada's North.

"A full-time military presence in Nunavut ... is in the works," says McLeod. "I'd like it done in the next two years."

According to McLeod, these changes represent a realization that this is the time for action.

"We've done an awful lot of planning, an awful lot of study and an awful lot of briefings. Now is the time to let the plan play out and then let's adjust it."

Key to his job is understanding how the North is changing and what will happen in the future.

"I think in the next 10 to 15 years the natural resources of our country will be more vital than they are now," he says.

The North is already home to huge, proven reserves of petroleum and other natural resources, and there may be much more to be found under the frozen landscape.

"Who knows what we'll find on the continental shelf of the Arctic?"

He has to figure out how the military -- in conjunction with other agencies -- can defend those resources and ensure Canada's claim to the Arctic cannot be challenged.

"It's not a typical military threat," he says.

It ranges from unauthorized aircraft in Canadian airspace and vessels heading into arctic waters, illegal immigration to threats to natural resources, environmental disasters and even airplane crashes.

"It's evolving, changing all the time."