The North Pole is closer to Paris than it is to Ottawa. Russia's northernmost Arctic island is more than 1,500 kilometres from Alert, Nunavut.
Providing security in Canada's Arctic requires a sense of perspective - and a willingness to co-operate. The most significant security threats are found along the Arctic's southern fringes and involve non-state actors, such as drug smugglers, not other nation-states.
Former U.S. ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci has warned that terrorists might use an ice-free Northwest Passage to traffic in weapons of mass destruction. It could also serve as an entry point for illegal immigrants. Gravel airstrips are scattered along the Passage, a legacy of the Cold War and countless research and prospecting expeditions.
Foreign cruise ships put hundreds of passengers on shore at Inuit communities that have scheduled air service but no immigration controls.
In 2006, a Romanian man sailed from Greenland to Grise Fjord, after having been deported from Toronto. He was arrested by the RCMP. In 2007, five Norwegians set out to challenge Canada's Northwest Passage claim. The RCMP intervened, with the help of the Coast Guard icebreaker Wilfred Laurier.
These incidents demonstrate that the RCMP can deal with non-state threats - if they have the support of other government agencies.
As is the case in the rest of Canada, this leaves the Canadian Forces with the principal task of search and rescue. Unfortunately, four old, slow Twin Otter aircraft based in Yellowknife constitute the entirety of the Canadian Forces Arctic fleet.
Hercules aircraft based in Southern Canada are frequently called upon but take six hours to reach the Northwest Passage. No long-range Cormorant helicopters are based in the Arctic, not even in summer, because it's considered inefficient to locate search-and-rescue assets where a sparse population creates a statistically low risk.
Accidents in the Arctic tend to be serious. Each summer, thousands of older tourists visit the Canadian Arctic on cruise ships. In November of 2007, a Canadian-owned vessel sank during an Antarctic voyage. Fortunately, the sea was calm and two other ships were close by.
More than 100,000 people fly over the Canadian Arctic each day on high-latitude routes to Europe and Asia. Retired colonel Pierre Leblanc says the prospect of a crash was the one thing that kept him awake at night when commanding Canadian Forces Northern Area.
Basing two Cormorant helicopters in Iqaluit and Inuvik during the summertime would be a good start. From there, they could cover the areas of greatest maritime activity in the Canadian Arctic - Baffin Bay and the Beaufort Sea - as well as the Northwest Passage. Improving search-and-rescue capabilities would also facilitate the enforcement of our domestic laws, and thus our sovereignty claims. A long-range helicopter is the perfect platform for boarding foreign vessels. Much better, indeed, than the "Arctic offshore patrol ships" that the Canadian Forces are due to acquire beginning in 2015. The patrols ships will not be designed to break ice and, for this reason, will not be sent into the Northwest Passage.
The new ships are best thought of as replacements for the appallingly slow Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel, with some additional ice-strengthening that will enable them to be used in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in winter, and Baffin Bay in summer.
Building naval vessels specifically for the Arctic would be inefficient, as the federal government seemed to realize when it announced plans for the Diefenbaker: a $720-million icebreaker intended for the Coast Guard. The procurement process has already been suspended, and for good reason. The Diefenbaker was intended to be much larger and more powerful than sea-ice projections warrant, given the accelerating effects of climate change.
The money should now be redirected to the acquisition of two or three mid-sized icebreakers, which would do the job well and provide much greater coverage. While the ships are being built, it would make sense to add a light machine gun and long-range helicopter to each of our existing icebreakers. Their Coast Guard crews could be trained in forcible interdictions, equipped with small arms, and made members of the Naval Reserve.
They would then be of more assistance to the Canadian Forces with search-and-rescue, and to the RCMP with law enforcement. All this while fulfilling their existing, essential functions of breaking ice for commercial vessels, maintaining navigation devices and supporting Arctic research.
Instead of militarizing the Canadian Arctic at great cost and little effect, we should build on our strengths -and co-operate.
Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia. He is a project leader with ArcticNet, a consortium of scientists from Canadian universities and federal government departments.
This article is an edited version of a presentation to the House of Commons standing committee on national defence.