Speaking at NATO — Canada’s Voice on Arctic Security

As Minister of Northern and Arctic Affairs, one of my most significant responsibilities is ensuring that Canada’s northern communities are not an afterthought in our national security conversation — but a central part of it.

This fall I had the honour of delivering remarks at NATO on Arctic security — representing Canada’s position on sovereignty, northern defence, and the rapidly changing strategic landscape of the Arctic region.

The conversation at NATO about the Arctic has never been more urgent. Russia’s increasing military activity, the opening of new shipping routes, and growing international competition for Arctic access and resources mean that Canada can no longer treat the North as a quiet backyard. It is a strategic frontier — and the decisions being made in rooms like that one will shape this region for generations.

My message was clear: the best assertion of Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic is not only military infrastructure. It is the health, strength, and vibrancy of the Indigenous and northern communities who have always lived on that land. Investing in those communities — their infrastructure, their economies, their self-determination — is both a moral imperative and a strategic one.

Canada’s north belongs to the people who live there. That is what I said in that room. And that is what I will keep saying. 💙

Miigwech · Kinana’skomitin · Pidamaya ye · Mahsi cho · Nakurmiik · Merci · Thank you