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Feds promise Arctic patrol ships by 2013

Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Monday, July 16, 2007

IQALUIT - Reneging on an election promise of a fleet of icebreakers for the Canadian North, last week the federal government announced that six to eight patrol ships would ply Arctic waters and a deep-water port would be built.

The announcement has created more questions than answers for the territory's politicians, who have been left in the dark.

On July 9 during a visit to Esquimalt, B.C., Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that the Canadian Navy will acquire and deploy six to eight Arctic offshore patrol ships with an estimated price tag of $3.1 billion. An additional $4.3 billion will be spent on the operation and maintenance of the ships over their expected 25-year life span. The first of the Canadian-built ships is expected to be operational by 2013.

"The ongoing discovery of the North's resource riches - coupled with the potential impact of climate change - has made the region an area of growing interest and concern," Harper said in his announcement last week. "Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty over the Arctic. We either use it or lose it."

Such words have riled Nunavut Member of Parliament Nancy Karetak-Lindell, who feels that Northern sovereignty would be better promoted by improving the lives of Inuit.

"Canada's sovereignty is best asserted by the presence we, the people, have in the Arctic," she wrote in a press release.

"We've never had ships up in the North that could operate in the North before," said Jeff Agnew, Navy Commander with the Department of National Defence and Director of Navy Public Affairs. "There's quite a bit of presence but what we haven't been able to do is have a naval presence and physically be on the water for extended periods of time."

Opposed to icebreakers that can operate in Northern waters for the greater part of the year, the announced patrol ships will only be operational in the Arctic one to six months a year, due to the fact that they will only be able to break through ice a metre thick.

For the remainder of the year, the ships will be used for sovereignty patrols on Canada's east and west coasts, reducing illegal fishing and immigration, search and rescue operations and anti-pollution patrols.

Each of the ships will be equipped with a helicopter landing pad and gunnery. Agnew anticipates that they will be crewed by Navy civilian reservists.

"Canada has a responsibility to know what's going on in all of its oceans, and we have three oceans," Agnew said. "We've just not been able to do a particularly good job in the North for many years."

Included in the announcement was the promise of a deep-water port where the patrol ships will be able to resupply and refuel. No indication has been given as to where the port will be built, although Agnew said local infrastructure and a site's proximity to an air field will be taken into consideration.

"We see this as a huge potential, not just for Iqaluit, but for other communities," said Iqaluit Mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik. The city has been working on a feasibility study for more than a year. A delegation from the city has met with federal officials in Ottawa once and in Iqaluit twice regarding plans for a deep-water port. Iqaluit city council has received no word that they would receive the port.

Sheutiapik insists that any port in Iqaluit must be multipurpose, for military and civilian use. She sees opportunities for other Nunavut communities to get more involved in the fishing industry as a result of the port.

"There's huge opportunities for tourism. Our arts and crafts industry would bloom," Sheutiapik added.

The mayor said she supports the Canadian military having a stronger presence in the North.

"There's some real infrastructure needs in our territory that will possibly finally be met," she said.