Good article, PH. It is best to leave Nanisivik on the back burner. At least Grays Bay can serve two purposes. The AOPS can easily fuelup in Grays Bay, move east or west and cover the northern leg of the Northwest Passage.
An Arctic port is a heavy lift but we’ve done these things before.
There's no guarantee Grays Bay will work out. But, at least, we're trying to build the right facility in the right place. And not choosing the location because we think it will be easy might actually make the whole project easier, if that makes sense.
I saw at least one person who accidentally posted a picture of Mary River, which is the mine site ~100km inland, and identifying it as the port. Is it possible you saw the same thing?
I saw Prime Minister Carney announce the Grays Bay Road and Port last week in his $35 billion North plan. It matches the western site the Navy actually wants. Milne Inlet might buy some time, but Nanisivik's two-decade wait shows why rushing these easy fixes rarely works in the Arctic.
Great write-up. I have always held that an east Arctic base is a dumb idea. All of them are only currently open from June-July till October at best. I have held that we should negotiate a deal with Denmark/Greenland for a joint infrastructure agreement at NUUK. Pier or two and refueling infrastructure at their new Naval Base there. It provides us with year round ice edge refueling and the consistent presence of Canadian military and CCG ships would provide all year Arctic visibility. It would be the best way to show the world we are taking Arctic duties seriously. My 2 cents.
The AOPS may not need the fuel but it seems that the proposed Corvettes would have the ability to travel north to the Arctic. Would they need the refueling capacity in Eastern Arctic? I don't think they will be designed with the range of the AOPS.
Topshee’s publicly talked about a desire for the Continental Defence Corvette to have a range of 7000 nautical miles, which is almost 13,000km.
My crystal ball is too foggy to tell if that's what it will end up being (if the project goes ahead at all). But there's a desire for even more range than the AOPS has.
Good article, PH. It is best to leave Nanisivik on the back burner. At least Grays Bay can serve two purposes. The AOPS can easily fuelup in Grays Bay, move east or west and cover the northern leg of the Northwest Passage.
An Arctic port is a heavy lift but we’ve done these things before.
There's no guarantee Grays Bay will work out. But, at least, we're trying to build the right facility in the right place. And not choosing the location because we think it will be easy might actually make the whole project easier, if that makes sense.
Weird, I though the announcement had an overhead photo showing a runway next to a heliport and the main facilities with a few zones for camps 💁🏻
I saw at least one person who accidentally posted a picture of Mary River, which is the mine site ~100km inland, and identifying it as the port. Is it possible you saw the same thing?
Found the source, it shows Mary River but I missed that. https://x.com/exnerpirot/status/2033346354035163288?s=61&t=ndcduV32lJS_PasZXsqsdg
Yeah, she responded to someone mentioning the error and posted a correction: https://x.com/ExnerPirot/status/2033370493877924190?s=20
I feel like it's natural that people will confuse the sites, though, which is why I included the bit about the runways here.
Terrific background story and information I simply new nothing about. Thanks for writing this piece. This is the fabric of Canadiana.
I saw Prime Minister Carney announce the Grays Bay Road and Port last week in his $35 billion North plan. It matches the western site the Navy actually wants. Milne Inlet might buy some time, but Nanisivik's two-decade wait shows why rushing these easy fixes rarely works in the Arctic.
Great write-up. I have always held that an east Arctic base is a dumb idea. All of them are only currently open from June-July till October at best. I have held that we should negotiate a deal with Denmark/Greenland for a joint infrastructure agreement at NUUK. Pier or two and refueling infrastructure at their new Naval Base there. It provides us with year round ice edge refueling and the consistent presence of Canadian military and CCG ships would provide all year Arctic visibility. It would be the best way to show the world we are taking Arctic duties seriously. My 2 cents.
The AOPS may not need the fuel but it seems that the proposed Corvettes would have the ability to travel north to the Arctic. Would they need the refueling capacity in Eastern Arctic? I don't think they will be designed with the range of the AOPS.
Topshee’s publicly talked about a desire for the Continental Defence Corvette to have a range of 7000 nautical miles, which is almost 13,000km.
My crystal ball is too foggy to tell if that's what it will end up being (if the project goes ahead at all). But there's a desire for even more range than the AOPS has.
Ottawa seems to “hear” nothing important.