The chair of the recently struck Yukon Arctic security advisory council feels relatively safe in the Yukon and in Canada, but less so than three years ago.
“Will I feel safe in Canada 20 years from now if we do the same things? Not so much,” chair Ken Coates said during a press conference alongside Premier Ranj Pillai on Jan. 4. Coates figures there have been more conversations on this matter in the last 24 months than in the past 24 years combined.
That’s partly why the council is examining security and defence through a “21st-century lens,” according to Coates.
“It’s not about tanks,” he said.
“This actually really is about cybersecurity, environmental security [and] responding to emergency sort of challenges on a different kind of level. It’s about being alert to what’s going on in the world.”
The independent council of subject matter experts will advise the Yukon government when it comes to studying risks, determining what assets and infrastructure require more protection and identifying potential areas for the Yukon government to work with the federal government to boost security across the territory.
“When I look at the announcements from the federal government for very extensive investment into Canada’s North and into the NORAD structure and program, one of the glaring omissions was any sort of allocation of funding for infrastructure in the Yukon,” Pillai said.
Canada and the United States established NORAD as the world’s only binational military command against the backdrop of the Cold War and the threat of a Soviet air attack. The federal government has set out to splurge $40 billion over the two decades to bolster continental defence amid new and emerging threats.
Pillai justified the territorial government spending $100,000 on the council to be “properly prepared at that table, especially when you need to maybe negotiate that more should be coming to our territory.”
Coates said people are becoming more and more concerned about changing, tense and politically motivated geopolitics, for example, involving Russia and China.
In February 2023, international attention and media coverage turned to the Yukon after NORAD shot down a high-altitude object. At the time, 135 Canadian Armed Forces members were mobilized in the search for the object.
Pillai said he reflected on that experience, wondering: “How can we make things better?”
“We saw some opportunities to improve,” he said, noting the Yukon government played a key role in supporting the federal government to ensure that First Nations governments were “respectfully and properly communicated to” as resources were deployed.
“We think there’s some real ways that we can help make sure that Yukoners are properly informed when a situation occurs.”
The premier talked about permanently increasing the military presence in the Yukon.
“Right now, there’s very little military presence, almost none,” Coates said, noting that’s despite the Yukon’s history having been largely defined by military activities such as the Alaska Highway construction.
“Here we are, many years later, sort of still living with the consequences of roads that went the wrong way and that weren’t properly finished at the time for good military reasons.”
Coates said other countries have done a “better job” at integrating military activity with what the premier calls “dual-use infrastructure.” Coates describes the term as social, economic and commercial opportunities associated with the defence sector.
“Canada has a lot to learn,” he said.
Pillai reiterated that grid connection to British Columbia is a prime example of strategic investment.
“We’re looking at what’s the long-term plan for the Yukon for energy security,” Pillai said.
Coates mentioned that while the former and current Yukon premiers have been driving forces on Arctic security, this is not intended to be a critique of Ottawa.
“The country has enough divisions; we need some sort of common ground, and I think defence and security had better be one of the most important ones,” he said.
Raised in Whitehorse, Coates is nationally known for his work on northern Indigenous issues in Canada. After a career that spanned the country, in 2023, he returned to the Yukon as a program chair at Yukon University.
The five-member council commenced its work in November 2023. It’s partway through preparing a draft report for the Yukon government.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com