The answer to the age-old politically-charged question of “guns or butter” rarely falls on the guns side of the ledger. There is no question. When it comes to making a decision on whether to spend money on defence or on maintaining (or enhancing) public services and the economy the more popular decision is to go with the latter. Simply put, there are mover votes to be mined in that realm.
But the new world order, where our Russian neighbours to the north have adopted a new and more bellicose approach to solving disputes, the argument for more defence spending becomes much stronger.
Sometimes, political decisions must run counter to the political tide. But the truth is that those decisions do not always have to stand as a complete dichotomy.
Canada is under increasing pressure from our allies to up our nation’s game when it comes to military spending—with the oft-touted defence spending goal of two percent of gross national product. The current Liberal government has committed to meeting that goal by 2032. We need to move faster.
Currently, we have very little presence (or national investment) in the Canada’s far North, miniscule when compared to that of our Russian neighbours. Yet even though much of our nation’s economic future is inextricably bound up in that region, our collective eyes are steadfastly focussed in the south.
By building the infrastructure needed to access the North we can extend our nation’s sovereignty over what is widely anticipated to be “the next big thing” in trade—the fabled Northwest Passage.
Complacency over the defence of our nation’s Northern territories comes at the peril of losing control over a region Canadians have always just “naturally” believed to be ours. Not everyone in the world agrees. If a nation is unable to enforce its sovereignty over its territory, that territory is inevitably lost to those who can.
Currently, the trade juggernaut of China has partnered with Russia in pacts looking to the opening of the Northwest Passage. Already ships are plying those waters as a shortcut to markets across the globe and their numbers are projected to increase exponentially as global warming opens the ice pack for ever-longer periods of time.
In the desperate days of the Second World War the US Corps of Army Engineers embarked upon what is considered one of the most expensive projects of the Second World War, coming in at a cost of approximately $185 million in 1942 dollars. The project took some 11,000 soldiers and engineers, about 16,000 civilians and employed 7,000 pieces of equipment. The original pioneer road was completed in 1942, taking just nine months to connect Dawson Creek to Delta Junction, Alaska—by 1943 Northern military outposts could be reliably supplied across what would become known as the Alaska Highway.
But it was in 1948 when the highway opened to civilian use that the economic benefits began to flow south.
By building a “military” road into Canada’s North, our nation could easily meet the NATO benchmark, while at the same time creating jobs and economic opportunities for generations to come. Being able to reliably reach the far North by road and rail will also bolster our claim to the vast riches contained within.
Certainly, that infrastructure must be built in such a manner as to have the least impact on the pristine wilderness that is the vast reaches of the North and be done in as environmentally sound manner as possible—but if we want to continue to call those regions part of Canada it not only should be done, it must.
