It’s been another busy week, so let’s use that news.

1. Elisapie and Deantha Edmunds brought home Juno Awards on Sunday. Edmunds won Classical Composition of the Year with her piece titled Angmalukisaa. Elisapie took two awards: Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year and Adult Alternative Album of the Year for Inuktitut, an album featuring Inuktitut covers of contemporary classics. Which song is not covered on Inuktitut?

A. Wild Horses, by The Rolling Stones
B. Dreams, by Fleetwood Mac
C. Born to Die, by Lana Del Rey

2. Kugluktuk Coun. Nadene McMenemy became the recipient of the Governor General’s Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers last month, for her year-round fundraising efforts to distribute Christmas gifts and food every holiday season. The work to raise $60,000 starts every year in January. What is included in her fundraising efforts?

A. A telethon event
B. A triathlon
C. A hotdog eating contest

3. Toonik Tyme’s first event was last weekend with a snowmobile race from Iqaluit to Kimmirut and back, with a loaded qamutik. The race was scheduled a few weeks early this year to avoid what?

A. A partial solar eclipse
B. Conflict with a snowmobile race hosted in Kimmirut
C. Wet conditions along the trail

4. North of North star Anna Lambe has been cast in a movie set in Alaska. Who will be her co-stars?

A. Brad Garrett and J.K. Rowling
B. Brad Pitt and J.K. Simmons
C. Bradley Cooper and J.K. Dobbins

5. Fuel prices went down April 1, including gasoline, which fell by 17 cents. If you live in Qikiqtarjuaq (or any other Nunavut community outside Iqaluit) and filled up your gas tank after the drop, how much did you pay per litre?

A. $1.34/litre
B. $0.99/litre
C. $1.55/litre

Why was this year’s Iqaluit-Kimmirut-Iqaluit snowmobile race with qamutik scheduled a little early this year? (File photo by Daron Letts)

Answers

1. C — You’ve probably heard Elisapie’s Inuktitut versions of Wild Horses by The Rolling Stones and Dreams by Fleetwood Mac on the radio, but if you heard Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die in Inuktitut, it wasn’t from Elisapie’s lauded album.
2. A — Kugluktuk Coun. Nadene McMenemy hosts an annual telethon event to raise the approximate $60,000 she needs to make sure her community has plenty of Christmas gifts and food to feast on every holiday season.
3. C — Racers loaded their gear early this year to avoid wet conditions experienced last year along the trail between Iqaluit and Kimmirut.
4. B — Anna Lambe will star alongside Brad Pitt and J.K. Simmons in Heart of the Beast, an action adventure film about a man and his dog who survive a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness.
5.  C — It’s no April Fools. Gas is now $1.55 per litre in Nunavut communities outside Iqaluit.

Well, that escalated quickly!

A week after bemoaning the sluggish state of the federal election campaign in Nunavut, an exciting competitive race to be the territory’s only member of Parliament has shaped up.

Toward the end of the campaign’s first week, the NDP’s Lori Idlout was the only declared candidate. It was back in October 2023 that the first-term MP secured her party’s nomination to seek a re-election to the position she won in 2021.

Now she’s joined by Conservative, Liberal and Green candidates, meaning the four of the five parties represented in the House of Commons have candidates in Nunavut. (The Bloc Québécois obviously is not fielding a candidate in this riding.)

Both the Liberal and Conservative parties are offering up well-known community leaders to challenge Idlout. It suggests that all three parties see the riding — which has elected NDP, Liberal and Conservative MPs over the past 20 years — as winnable.

The Liberals picked Kilikvak Kabloona, CEO of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., while the Conservative standard-bearer will be James Arreak, a vice-president at Qulliq Energy Corp.

The Green Party’s candidate is Brennan Wauters, who appears to be from British Columbia.

The news that Arreak and Kabloona had joined the race was greeted by Nunatsiaq News readers — as you might expect — with a mixture of approval and criticism. The NDP, Liberal and Conservative candidates have been in public life for years and have track records that Nunavummiut are aware of.

It’s encouraging to see a strong field of candidates on the ballot for the April 28 election. Nunavut voters appear to have good options — professionals with experience in management or government.

However, all of that might be overshadowed because of the dynamic of this particularly unusual and high-stakes election.

Party leadership — who Canadians want as prime minister — often has more to do with how people vote than who their local candidates is.

One issue is dominating the campaign across the country — who is best able to manage the once-stable, suddenly shaky relationship between Canada and the United States.

Will that be the case in Nunavut? Will the debate about whether Liberal Leader Mark Carney, Conservative Pierre Poilievre or the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh can stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump overshadow important issues specific to Nunavut?

Some of the issues Nunavut candidates should be talking about is the fate of the Inuit Child First Initiative, the affordability of food and the effectiveness of the Nutrition North program, how to ensure adequate and affordable housing, and how to deliver what Premier P.J. Akeeagok and NTI have described as “nation-building” projects like the Grays Bay road and port.

But there’s a big risk the national media will naturally focus on Canadian-American relations and the impact tariffs will have on the North American economy.

Nunatsiaq News will try to steer the discussion to what’s important to northerners — including how Trump could affect Canada-U.S. relations.

Now that there’s a full slate of candidates, we look forward to hearing from them and sharing their views with you.

Three of the most famous ships in the dying days of Arctic whaling were the Active, the Scotia, and the Morning.

All had operated out of Dundee, Scotland. All had been managed by Robert Kinnes, the influential Scotsman whose company controlled whaling in its last days in Baffin Island, Hudson Bay and Davis Strait. And all three ships were lost in the span of less than a month in the mid-1910s.

A crowd of onlookers witnesses the departure of the Active from Dundee, Scotland. It was leaving for a whaling voyage to the Arctic. (Photo from “The Arctic Whalers,” by Basil Lubbock, 1937)

The Active was a whaling ship well known to Inuit in southern Baffin Island. It features prominently in Inuit reminiscences recorded by Dorothy Eber in her wonderful book, When the Whalers were up North. 

Built in 1852 in Peterhead, Scotland, as a sailing vessel, she later had engines installed around 1870.

At 117 feet long, she was smaller than the average whaling ship. Described as a “tough and durable vessel,” the Active was able to sail well through broken ice, but also to act as an icebreaker when necessary.

She was often called “the smartest ship in the fleet.” A square-sterned barque, she was part of the Dundee whaling fleet from 1874 until 1916.   

Inuit remembered the Active as being captained for some time by Alexander Murray. In 1912, while wintering the vessel in the Ottawa Islands, a group of islands in Hudson Bay northwest of Inukjuak, Alexander Murray died. His official cause of death was an “internal tumour” but Inuit said that he died of drink. 

The vessel’s last voyage to the Arctic was in 1914. It was said that “no ship afloat has taken more whales from the Arctic region than the Active.” 

But the 1914 voyage, under Alexander Murray’s brother, John Murray, known to Inuit as Nakungajuq — the cross-eyed one — was not a success. It took no bowhead whales and returned with only 15 polar bear skins and the oil from two beluga whales. This, in the words of a disgruntled sailor, was “not enough to pay for a good breakfast for the lot of us.”  

In 1915, the Active and her sister ship the Morning were taken over by the government and placed under the management of the Hudson’s Bay Co. to assist in the war effort. They were to take munitions to Archangel in northern Russia — Russia being an ally of Great Britain in the fight against Germany.

Both ships were retrofitted in late 1915. But these ships were never meant to carry heavy cargoes. Old whalemen in Dundee warned of the dangers of taking out the blubber tanks to make the ships suitable for their wartime cargo. This increased the cargo capacity but reduced the ships’ stability and the strength of the hulls. Unfortunately, no-one heeded the veteran whalemen’s warnings.

Many of the crew who had initially signed, refused to sail on the Active, feeling her unsafe. For their protests they were tried and sentenced to 90 days in jail. But by doing so they saved their own lives. 

Capt. William Leask and a new crew sailed from Scotland on Dec. 21, 1915. Four days later — on Christmas Day — the Active sank off Orkney, north of Scotland. There were no survivors. 

A message in a bottle, saying — erroneously — that the Active was to the northeast of Lerwick and was sinking, was washed ashore at Stronsay in Orkney. The bottle included a farewell message to his family from second mate James Scott Jamieson.

It was also his will. It read in part, “Dear family, this will be my last letter to you.… God bless you all as he has given me strength to die; my soul is resting on the finished work of Jesus … the water is at my knees in the cabin … don’t mourn  for me; meet me in Heaven.”

He then named a list of relatives and wrote, “I leave everything among you.”

***

The Active’s sister ship, the Morning, was built in Norway in 1871 and given the name Morgenen. She was a steamship, 140 feet long. She also made her last Arctic voyage in 1914, travelling to Hudson Bay under Capt. James Fairweather to bring back produce from Robert Kinnes’s shore stations.

In 1915, also bound for Archangel, the Morning got a little farther north than the Active had. But she too was overtaken by a gale and went down off the Faroe Islands on Dec. 29, only four days after the loss of the Active. Only the captain and the second mate survived.

 ***

The Scotia was a steamer of 357 tons and measured 139 feet in length. Built in Norway in 1872 as the Hecla, she came to Dundee in 1902, and was away in the Antarctic for 21 months with the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. On her return she joined the whaling fleet and served until 1913. 

The Scotia had success as a whaler, taking four bowhead whales in 1907, and six the following year. 1909 was a record year, with eight bowheads. But whaling was an unpredictable business, and the following year only one was taken. The year 1912 was worse; she returned “clean,” the whaling term indicating no whales were taken. 

Then, in the aftermath of the Titanic disaster, Scotia was assigned to ice patrol duty in the North Atlantic. But she was unsuccessful at this because she was too slow and had insufficient engine power. Back in Dundee she too went to the Hudson’s Bay Co. for war duties. 

She sailed from Dundee on Oct. 7, 1915, bound for Cardiff, Wales, to take on a load of coal destined for Bordeaux, France. Her captain, Robert Bannerman, left her on Jan. 14 to return home to Scotland, after receiving the sad news of the death of his father James Bannerman who perished in the sinking of the Morning.

A new captain was in charge a few days later when the ship caught fire in Bristol Channel. He successfully beached the ship, but she burned, becoming a total wreck on Jan. 18, 1916. Fortunately, no lives were lost.

In the short span of a little over three weeks, three of Dundee’s most successful whaling ships had been lost. This spelled the end of any hope, slim though it was, that Scottish bowhead whaling in the Arctic could be revived after the war. 

Taissumani is an occasional column that recalls events of historical interest. Kenn Harper is a historian and writer who lived in the Arctic for over 50 years. He is the author of Give Me Winter, Give Me Dogs: Knud Rasmussen and the Fifth Thule Expedition, and Thou Shalt Do No Murder, among other books. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to [email protected].

Housing NWT has begun accepting applications from people who own their home and are seeking cash to help with repairs. Here's how to apply.

The jurors at the coroner’s inquest investigating the 2019 death of Kimmirut man George Arlooktoo concluded he died by suicide and made multiple more than 30 recommendations aimed at preventing a similar death.

They also recommended that Goverenment of Nunavut declare a “suicide crisis.”

“We all hope that another death will be prevented as a result of the recommendations made here,” Nunavut’s chief coroner Dr. Michael Foote said Friday afternoon at the end of the five-day hearing.

During the inquest, six jurors heard testimony from 14 witnesses, including Arlooktoo’s aunt Levee Arlooktoo, who found her distraught 28-year-old nephew with two guns and threatening to hurt himself the morning after he stabbed his partner.

She testified that Arlooktoo said he was “terrified” of having to go back to jail, and that something bad happened to him when he was in jail previously.

Two RCMP officers — Sgt. Dustin Grant and Cpl. Bayden Austring — who responded to Arlooktoo’s home to try to get him mental health support testified. When they saw him trying to hurt himself, they tried to use a stun gun — a weapon that emits a jolt of electricity to immobilize someone — but it was unsuccessful because of the thickness of the coat he was wearing.

And so did pathologist Dr. Alfredo Walker, who said Arlooktoo couldn’t have survived the self-inflicted stab wounds he suffered after police entered his home.

Nunavut’s assistant deputy minister of health Victoria Madsen described changes in a new Mental Health Act aimed at giving authorities the ability to intervene in mental health crises sooner.

Ottawa Police Service Det-Sgt. Kevin Jacobs, who did a third-party investigation of the RCMP conduct, said the officers’ attempts to stop Arlooktoo were “commendable” and “impressive.”

The purpose of a coroner’s inquest is not to determine blame like a criminal trial does. The goal of an inquest is to have the jury determine the cause of death and to make recommendations.

One juror said suicide in Kimmirut had become a “crisis” with four other people having died that way since Arlooktoo’s death six years ago.

On Feb. 9, 2019, Arlooktoo was at home, distraught and threatening to kill himself after having stabbed his partner the night before. He refused to let police officers or anyone else into his home. After officers forced his front door open, Arlooktoo stabbed himself in the neck 11 times, the inquest heard. 

Officers transported him to a health clinic less than two minutes away. The moment Arlooktoo arrived and for the 30 minutes until he was declared dead, nurses never obtained a pulse.

Along with determining how Arlooktoo died, jurors were also asked to make recommendations in the interest of preventing deaths of a similar nature in the future.

Officers were understaffed and overworked leading up to Arlooktoo’s death. Jurors recommended the RCMP maintain three officers at the Kimmirut detachment at all times. It also made recommendations around mental health.

Jurors made 31 recommendations on subjects including policing and mental health. 

Policing

• Three officers should be stationed in the community at all times.
• The local RCMP detachment should hire a bilingual staff member to assist dispatchers and the police.
• New RCMP officers should receive local, cultural and community-specific training and orientation.

Mental Health

• A permanent mental health practitioner should be recruited to work at the health centre on a long-term basis.
• Local Inuit should be hired and trained as counsellors.
• Men’s and youth groups and clubs should be created and maintained.

The resources are available to people in distress and who need to talk with someone:

Kamatsiaqtut Help Line is Nunavut-specific and offers services in Inuktitut. Phone: 979-3333 for Iqaluit residents and 1-800-265-3333 for other Nunavummiut.

The Suicide Crisis Helpline is available 24/7 in English and French by phone or text at 9-8-8.

The First Nations and Inuit Hope for Wellness Helpline: 1-855-242-3310 or chat online at hopeforwellness.ca.

Police in Fort Smith, N.W.T. have charged two Alberta men with drug trafficking after finding 311 grams of "suspected cocaine" after executing a search warrant in the community.

Camilla Hempleman-Adams has made international headlines with her claims of being the first solo woman to trek across Baffin Island — but Inuit question that.

The city this past week started another year of actively monitoring the slope, using radar scanners, groundwater data, and other methods.

Two Alberta men in their late teens were charged by RCMP after police said they were found with cocaine in an abandoned Fort Smith home.

Yellowknife Co-op said it is acquiring Hay River's Super A Foods, a major move in the NWT grocery sector that also explains the Co-op's move to change its name.

Imperial Oil has asked the Mackenzie Valley Review Board to initiate a third environmental assessment related to its oilfield in Norman Wells, N.W.T. – this time, for its nearing closure.

Members of Iqaluit’s public safety committee discussed tightening the amount of alcohol a person can buy in a day in light of reported violence around the beer and wine store, but did not land on an agreement about whether it’s the right move.

The committee — made up of city staff, councillors and representatives from the Government of Nunavut, RCMP and various local non-profits — met Thursday afternoon for the first time this year.

The beer and wine store has become a “focal point” of public safety issues, said Coun. Amber Aglukark, who chairs the committee.

She suggested the store should cut in half its current daily purchase limits limit — a measure implemented last year in Rankin Inlet.

Aglukark’s suggestions also included continuing an awareness campaign that promotes “zero tolerance” for public drinking as well as more RCMP enforcement around the store and more funding for mental health and addiction services. She also recalled Coun. Kyle Sheppard last year raising the possibility of a temporary alcohol ban.

Deputy Mayor Kim Smith questioned the effect of limiting how much alcohol customers can buy.

“There’s been a national mental health crisis that’s resulted in significant amounts of alcohol abuse, drug abuse,” Smith said.

“I’m not sure what the answer is but I do think that public awareness and just improving the mental health of our community through recreation, programming, access to spaces — I think these are the things that help treat the underlying issues instead of just the symptoms of it.”

Increased policing to deter public drinking in Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet resulted in a “significant reduction” in incidents in both communities, said committee member Sgt. Rob Daly of the RCMP.

However, he questioned the effectiveness of a daily limit, suggesting people may go to the store “twice as often.”

“You’re still going to have people drinking in public. It is what it is,” Daly said.

Committee member Sherri Robertson, who is the YWCA Agvik executive director, suggested the store should have a list of customers barred from service if they have been involved in incidents of violence.

She recalled working at a restaurant in the 1990s that kept a list of people not to serve.

Thursday’s hour-long meeting also covered concerns of loitering around the city’s grocery stores as well as the need to improve control of loose dogs.

The public safety committee’s next scheduled meeting is Oct. 7.

The City of Iqaluit has begun its annual spring snow removal operations as temperatures rise in Nunavut’s capital.

Crews are clearing accumulated snow from various areas and transporting it to designated dumping sites over the coming weeks, a public service announcement issued Friday said.

Residents are urged to exercise caution around heavy equipment and snow removal vehicles.

The announcement advises residents to maintain a safe distance from operating machinery and following posted signage or instructions from city staff.

Public cooperation is essential to ensuring the work is completed safely and efficiently, the announcement said.

A second snow-removal announcement said the back-road access to the Plateau areas will be closed on Saturday so public works staff can carry out snow removal activities. The road will be closed from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., the city said, adding that residents should plan their travel accordingly.

Nunavut’s federal Liberal candidate introduced herself to supporters Friday, saying she’s up for the challenge of running for Parliament.

“I like big challenges. That’s who I am,” Kilikvak Kabloona said to a room of 15 people at the Arctic Children and Youth Foundation, a charity dedicated to improving the lives of children and youth in the Canadian Arctic.

The event was open to the public although most of those in attendance were staff from the foundation, along with Premier P.J. Akeeagok and Iqaluit-Manirajak MLA Adam Arreak Lightstone.

“For the past year, I have been advocating for the extension of the Inuit Child First Initiative program,” Kabloona said, referring to work in her role as CEO of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. She has taken a leave without pay from that job for the duration of her campaign.

“I recognize that more needs to be done.”

The Inuit Child First Initiative is a federal government program that pays for health, education and social programs for Inuit children and youth. The fund was scheduled to end last month, but received a one-year reprieve when the Liberal government announced an extension March 8.

If she wins the April 28 election, Kabloona said she will work for more long-term funding for the Inuit Child First Initiative, aiming for four-year funding cycles.

Kilikvak Kabloona told a group of about 15 people Friday in Iqaluit that she supports Inuktitut language instruction. She was acclaimed Tuesday as Nunavut’s Liberal candidate in the April 28 federal election. (Photo by Daron Letts)

She also highlighted her work with NTI, supervising the negotiation team involved in the signing of the Nunavut Agreement renewal with the Liberal government on March 8.

That deal includes $1.5 billion to be paid out over the next nine years, which allocates $650 million for training Inuit for government jobs.

In addition to the Nunavut Agreement renewal, Kabloona spoke of her work in support of building shelters across Nunavut, including a shelter in Pond Inlet, which she said she visited recently.

“In Gjoa Haven, it is expected that shelter will be open later this year and in Baker Lake, the designs have been developed and funding has been secured for construction,” she said.

For Inuit post-secondary students, Kabloona said she has worked with regional Inuit associations to secure $10 million from Makigiaqta Inuit Training Corporation for food and other “wraparound supports” for students, such as daycare and tutoring costs.

Kabloona described herself as a “silent speaker” of Inuktitut, explaining that she understands and speaks the language, but thinks in English.

“There’s so many reasons for Inuktitut language loss,” she said. “I have always been and would continue to be a strong supporter of the Inuktitut language.”

Kabloona is running against incumbent NDP member of Parliament Lori Idlout, Conservative candidate James Arreak and the Green Party’s Brennan Wauters.

A lithium exploration company working in the N.W.T. says getting a mine ready for production could be anywhere from six to eight years away – but already, it's evaluating how it would get the material refined and battery ready without relying on China. 

Inuktitut speakers can access an online media training course for free through Ottawa-based communications training firm Trustmakers.

John McKay, managing partner at Trustmakers, which has worked across Canada’s North for more than a decade, announced the move in February at the Aqsarniit Tradeshow and Conference in Ottawa.

McKay pointed to a growing demand for these training opportunities.

“Governments and public sector organizations have been struggling to meet Inuit and other Indigenous employment targets,” he said in an interview.

“We understand and have heard that there’s a need for more professional development opportunities for Inuit in their own language.”

The Inuktitut version of the online course, which was previously available for $595 per participant, can now be accessed without an account or payment through the Trustmakers website.

The training consists of nine self-directed modules, including 11 short video exercises, and guidance on conducting and evaluating practice sessions.

The course covers the rules of the game for spokespeople and public sector organizations, particularly non-profit organizations.

It also explains what guides reporters in their work, what rules they operate under, and how media interactions between spokespeople and reporters do not have to be “adversarial.”

“Destroying trust in media relations seems to have been a common practice,” McKay said.

“Without trust, you’re dead in the water.” 

McKay said his company steers participants towards an open approach to media relations. It’s a diversion from what he described as more “outdated” practices.

“We totally reject the old-school 1960s Mad Men approach to media relations — spin, manipulation, evasion, deflection,” he said.

Trustmakers has delivered media training in collaboration with the Government of Nunavut, federal organizations such as Parks Canada and the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board.

McKay said he hopes to work with postsecondary institutions such as the Nunavut Arctic College and the new Inuit Nunangat University to expand access to professional development in media and communications.

He also said there has also been unexpected interest in the course from non-profit organizations working with youth.

The company also offers live workshops in English and French, conducted via videoconference from Trustmakers’ Learning and Media Production Centre in Ottawa.

While Trustmakers has previously conducted workshops in Inuktitut, McKay said his staff are actively seeking new partnerships to expand the new offering.

He also said he welcomes feedback on the Inuktitut course content, including exercises and podcasts, to ensure it meets the needs of those using it.

Arctic security and sovereignty are shaping up to be key issues for the April 28 federal election. This article is part of a series examining northern security, and the plans that Canada’s main political parties are promising.

For decades, Inuit have played a primary role in asserting Canadian Arctic sovereignty.

“I’m one of the proudest Canadian flagpoles that we can be,” said David Akeeagok, Nunavut’s economic development and transportation minister, in a Feb. 17 speech during the Aqsarniit Trade Show and Conference in Ottawa.

Akeeagok is an Inuk from Grise Fiord.

His family was relocated to Grise Fiord, Canada’s northernmost community, through a government-sponsored program in the 1950s with the goal of “demonstrating Canadian sovereignty,” as described in the Qikiqtani Truth Commission report.

However, with all three federal party leaders recently coming to Iqaluit, pledging to change Canada’s approach to Arctic security, some military experts say that even if the political leaders follow through with their campaign promises, those would merely plant more maple leaf “flagpoles” in the region.

Butter versus guns

Retired Col. Pierre Leblanc was a commander of the Canadian Forces Northern Area from 1995 to 2000.

At that time, he knew that if a foreign nation were to illegally enter Arctic waters, there was little he could do.

In fact, there was little chance he would actually know about the invasion.

“Would we know that there was a North Korean vessel with missile components for Iran transiting the Northwest Passage? The answer to that question was no,” he said.

“And do we have anything to stop it from doing it? No, we don’t have anything.”

And the situation has changed little since then, Leblanc said.

By 1987, Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government had identified the need for submarines equipped to patrol the Arctic, and was set to acquire 10 to 12 nuclear-powered subs for $8 billion.

“It didn’t make it to the next budget,” Leblanc said.

Three decades later, the discussion was revived.

The Liberal government unveiled its plan to acquire 12 non-nuclear submarines as part of its $81.1-billion defence policy introduced in April 2024.

The first submarine is set to be delivered “no later than” 2035.

But Leblanc says he learned to be skeptical of government defence pledges.

“We are all butter, no guns,” he said referring to an old metaphor for governments’ attempts to balance social program spending (butter) and military spending (guns).

The federal leaders prefer “butter” as it includes better “vote-buying initiatives,” he said.

‘There is enormous merit in showing the flag’

Canada’s major federal party leaders have announced various defence plans for the Arctic as the April 28 federal election approaches.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promises a military base for Iqaluit, a plan NDP Jagmeet Singh showed support for during a recent visit to the North. Liberal Leader and Prime Minister Mark Carney visited Iqaluit in March to announce an over-the-horizon radar detection system.

“Canadians want to know the North is defended, even if it’s not,” said Ken Coates, a senior policy fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a policy think tank based in Ottawa.

With growing threats from Russia and China, along with U.S. President Donald Trump “rattling his sabres,” Arctic defence policies are an “exercise in bribery,” that will do little except for planting more flags, he said.

“Don’t get me wrong there is enormous merit in showing the flag,” he said, but adding he finds it hard to get excited about the parties’ pre-election platforms.

“It’s hard to say, ‘Boy, that’s really dynamic, aren’t we proud that we’re finally doing something.'”

And it’s likely that these infrastructure projects will be delayed or abandoned as soon as the feeling of emergency is gone, Leblanc added.

“That’s what happened to Nanisivik,” he said.

The Nanisivik refuelling station near Arctic Bay was announced in 2007 by then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the rest of the world.

The project has been delayed several times in the past decades and its opening date is still in limbo.

‘Five-dollar safety belt’: Where does Canada’s defence stand now?

The last base built in Canada that is still operational is in Suffield, Alta., and dates back to 1972, according to the Department of National Defence.

Canadian Armed Forces currently have 20 bases and two stations including CFS Alert, the most northerly inhabited location in the world.

Bases have significantly larger permanent personnel than stations, with CFS Alert having only 55 permanent residents.

The Department of National Defence doesn’t publish the number of personnel on all of its bases. But of those published, the base in Halifax has the largest staff with 7,500 military and 2,300 civilian personnel.

And the base in Shilo, Man., is the smallest with roughly 1,700 both military and civilian residents.

If the Iqaluit base is built it will likely have 250 people attached to it at the very most, Coates estimated.

In the past decades, roughly a dozen Canadian Armed Forces bases were shut down across the country, at the same time as Canada has been under pressure to meet its commitment to spend two per cent of its GDP towards defence as a NATO member.

“Nobody buys safety belts that are only good for a five-kilometre impact speed,” Leblanc said.

“But I’m not sure that we even have a safety belt now, from a defence point of view, even if we do it’s certainly the five-dollar one.”

The Canadian Armed Forces currently have 20 operational bases ranging in size and the number of personnel attached. If you want to learn more about each base follow the link to view an interactive map of all the bases. (Created by Arty Sarkisian)

Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai said on Thursday that the territorial government was ending rebates for Tesla products, cancelling some of its Starlink accounts, and quitting the social media platform, X.

Northern women's organizations are calling on the prime minister to reinstate a dedicated federal minister for women and gender equality and youth (WAGE).  

An email to the local education board stated the territory couldn’t find a way to transport the units to the community.

The Yukon's education department says it's going to roll out a student outcome strategy in September, six years after the auditor general of Canada told the territory it needed one.

The death of a man whose body was found this week in the area where Puvirnituq Snow Festival events are happening appears to have been accidental, police say.

Events were disrupted Wednesday morning by the discovery of the body, apparently by visitors who came to Puvirnituq for the five-day festival.

At the time, Nunavik police said all possibilities were being considered while their investigation was ongoing.

Sgt. Hugues Beaulieu, a spokesperson for Sûreté du Québec, said investigators from the provincial police force arrived in Puvirnituq Wednesday night after being called earlier in the day.

“It’s still under investigation, but it appears to be an accidental death,” he said in French by text Thursday morning.

The body was discovered in the same place where 200 ice sculptors and community members had gathered Monday for the start of the festival. By Thursday morning, the yellow police tape used to cordon off the area had been removed.

Snow festival events that were put on hold Wednesday resumed Thursday, including a dogsled race scheduled for 10 a.m.

The body found was that of a man in his 40s, Nunavik Police Service deputy Chief Jean-François Morin said. The man’s identity has not been released.

In a report this week, PwC said that the current cash is expected to run out by mid to late April, with site operations, program management and emergency work costing far more than initially estimated. It also said it has extensive work planned into the fall. 

There appears to be a fire at Sunridge Apartments in Yellowknife. Emergency vehicles are on scene and heavy smoke could be seen billowing from the building on Thursday afternoon.

A fire has broken out at Yellowknife's Sunridge Apartments, a residential complex near the city's downtown. Follow the latest developments.

Writer Sarah Swan visits the Far North Photo Festival, a biennial showcase of visual storytellers that has taken over the walls of Snowking’s fortress.

Two Inuit artists are among this year’s Juno Award nominees, with two nominations each.

Salluit recording artist Elisapie is nominated for Adult Alternative Album of the Year and Album of the Year for her fourth studio album, Inuktitut, released in 2023.

The same album earned Elisapie the 2024 Juno in the Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year category.

Classical soprano Deantha Edmunds of St. John’s, N.L., who bills herself as Canada’s first classically trained Inuk singer, is nominated for Classical Composition of the Year for her original 2024 song Angmalukisaa, and Classical Album of the Year: Large Ensemble category, for her 2024 album Alikeness, recorded with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra.

Elisapie is also scheduled to perform at this year’s Juno Awards, being held at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena on Sunday evening.