Project Overview
- Location: Yellowknife (NT), Inuvik (NT), Iqaluit (NU), Goose Bay (NL)
- Type: Defence infrastructure — airfields, hangars, fuel and ammunition storage, accommodations, support buildings
- Investment: $32 billion CAD
- Proponent: Department of National Defence, Government of Canada
- Status: Planned; announced March 2026
- Indigenous involvement: Consultation with affected nations and Inuit organisations
Executive Summary
Canada is committing $32 billion to upgrade four military Forward Operating Locations across the Arctic and sub-Arctic — Yellowknife, Inuvik, Iqaluit, and 5 Wing Goose Bay. Announced by Prime Minister Carney in March 2026, the package is the largest single Northern defence investment in a generation, framed explicitly as a sovereignty play: the Canadian Armed Forces must be able to defend the Arctic without leaning on allies.
What's being built
Each of the four sites is being expanded from its current austere posture into a year-round operating base capable of sustaining fighter, transport, and surveillance operations. That means longer and reinforced runways, modern hangars (some new-build, some repurposed), fuel farms sized for sustained sortie generation, ammunition magazines, accommodations for permanent and rotational personnel, warehousing, IT backbone, and the unglamorous but expensive support buildings that turn an airstrip into a base.
Canada's Arctic approaches have been monitored more than defended for decades; the FOL upgrades close the gap between NORAD modernisation and the actual ability to put Canadian aircraft and personnel in the North on short notice and keep them there.
Indigenous context
The four locations sit in the territories of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation (Yellowknife), the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (Inuvik), the Qikiqtani Inuit Association (Iqaluit), and the Innu Nation and NunatuKavut Community Council (Goose Bay). Defence infrastructure of this scale historically generates significant local procurement, employment, and training pipelines, and Indigenous development corporations in each region are well-positioned to participate as contractors, joint-venture partners, and service providers. Consultation is ongoing rather than contested.
Why investors should pay attention
Funding is federal, the political coalition behind it is bipartisan, and the project sits at the intersection of three durable themes: Arctic sovereignty, NATO 2% commitments, and Indigenous economic reconciliation. Construction is multi-year and multi-site, which spreads execution risk and creates entry points across the supply chain — site preparation, modular construction, fuel systems, comms and IT, sustainment services.
