The only reasonable approach to Canada’s northern development and Arctic sovereignty is to focus initial efforts on the Port of Churchill on the west coast of Hudson Bay, and secondarily on Rankin Inlet, which is further up the same coast.

Attempts to support national security, aboriginal communities, scientific research, environmental protection and resource exploration by annual sealifts and air freight are not economically viable. Lower cost and greater frequency forms of logistics and operations are required to provide for a safe and prosperous northern future.

The existing Hudson Bay Railway carries mostly prairie grain to Churchill, Man., for trans-shipment to markets in Europe, but it could also transport on a year-round basis the fuel, equipment, materials, and personnel needed for facilitation of a Canadian Arctic strategy.

Global warming will continue to lengthen the time period when goods can be moved by ships throughout Hudson Bay and the Eastern approaches, along with a navigable route through the Foxe Basin to the Northwest Passage that will be viable in the future, but this is incremental improvement that could take decades to fully realize — options need to be assessed and implemented.

Sealifts will continue to be the most cost-effective means of delivering large equipment and bulk goods, but the technological advances in condensing inert gases will make cargo airships the likely source of multi-season sustainability, and Arctic-capable hovercraft on cleared sea-ice routes could provide local logistic (and search/rescue) support for a range of activities within the Arctic Archipelago.

Permanent facilities, whether governmental, civilian, or commercial will remain few and far between, so there would be a seasonal emphasis on heavy icebreakers, Arctic tugboats, large platform barges, and possibly tethered-aerial-sensor-arrays (TASA) for surveillance and communications relay.

The Canadian government needs to implement many overlapping responsibilities and obligations, with limited funds and personnel, and an entity such as Canadian Arctic Services would need to be established to integrate efforts involving the Canadian Forces, Coast Guard, Fisheries & Oceans, Northern Development, Natural Resources, Environmental Protection, etc.; combined with capabilities that can be supplied by the commercial and corporate entities that will wish to operate in the Arctic and high North.

The military and territorial protection aspects of Canadian sovereignty can only be enacted through a layered development approach to logistics bases and expanding operations nodes throughout the North. Our allies and neighbours in the Arctic, the Americans in the West, and the Danes (via Greenland) in the East, will be instrumental in how Canada deals with trans-oceanic shipping, search and rescue, Arctic development and continental security.

The Hans Island dispute must be resolved with the Danes and Greenlanders for Canadian Arctic policy to take form. Both nations have viable claims, but the island has little value beyond the surrounding fisheries and control of three-quarters of the Nares Strait. Perhaps having Hans Island declared a dual-jurisdiction would pave the way for Greenland and Canada to move ahead in a common alliance for Arctic development and security. Similar views on rights of transit through internal waters and territorial claims make for natural Arctic allies.