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“There’s money sprinkled here and there but there’s no big strategy,” said Jessica Shadian, president of Arctic 360, an organization studying investment in the region. “Where does Canada want to see itself in 30 or 40 years and how does the Arctic fit into that?”

As Canada drags its feet, Russia, China and other nations are aggressively investing in the Arctic, making Ottawa’s need to decide on a plan and assert itself in the region more urgent, she added. The United States recently renewed its interest in the Arctic and is currently looking at strategies for how to regulate and draw revenue from maritime traffic, she noted.

“It’s obviously going to take far more than $700 million to build all the infrastructure needed in the North, from ports and roads to everything else,” she said. “If we’re going to pay for all of that, we likely need third party investment and that means participation from financial institutions. Those institutions need to make a business case and to do that, they want to see a long term strategy, a vision for the North.”

There is so much potential for the North to help Canada become globally competitive in a much greater way Jessica Shadian, president of Arctic 360

Also missing from the government’s budget spending is a commitment to boost search and rescue capability in the North, said Hugh Stephens, executive fellow at the University of Calgary School of Public Policy.

Cruise ships and pleasure yachts are increasingly venturing into Arctic waters, including the Northwest Passage, placing new pressure on Canadian operations, researchers have warned. Since 2009, the number of ships sailing through federally monitored Arctic waters increased roughly 45 per cent from 86 ships in 2009 to 125 last year. Meanwhile, the number of voyages taken by those ships — measured by how many times a ship entered the monitored area — increased by 88 per cent during that same period.