Some Arctic security analysts say one thing that’s not talked about enough when it comes to Canada’s sovereignty in the North is intelligence.

Phil Gurski is a consultant and a former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) analyst. He says that improving infrastructure in the North is only part of the picture when it comes to northern sovereignty.

“I think there’s a really huge scope for bolstering intelligence on Canadian soil, from Canadian agencies, to help better inform the government,” Gurski told CBC News.

Gurski said Canada once had a much more robust intelligence presence in the Arctic, during the Cold War. He used the Canadian Forces Supplementary (CFS) Radio System as one example, with stations in places such as Inuvik, N.W.T., and Alert, Nunavut.

“These were intelligence stations that gathered raw signals to be able to monitor Soviet activities in their section of the Arctic to determine if there were any indications that the Soviets were planning something,” Gurski said.

While the CFS station in Inuvik closed in the 1980s, CFS Alert “maintains signals intelligence facilities to support Canadian military operations,” with about 55 military and civilian personnel stationed there, according to the federal government.

Gurski says intelligence is key to protecting the North’s economy. For example, he pointed to potential foreign interest in mining.

“If China wants to buy up a mining firm from the Northwest Territories, we want to know who’s buying it [and] what are they going to do with it?” he said.

In 2020, Ottawa blocked a $230-million deal for a Chinese company to purchase a gold mine project in Nunavut.

Intelligence has been ‘underappreciated’

Rob Huebert is a political scientist and the director of the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary. He also emphasized the importance intelligence can have in defending the North. 

“There is a general under-appreciation of how critical intelligence has to be within the understanding of Arctic security,” he said.

Both Huebert and Gurski named China, Russia, and more recently the U.S., as some countries who pose potential threats to Canada’s Arctic sovereignty and to the nation as a whole.

They also pointed to a report last year from Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, commissioner of the public inquiry into foreign interference. That report followed a 16-month investigation into how foreign actors have tried to interfere in democratic institutions and the electoral process in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. 

Whether there is foreign espionage happening in Canada’s North right now, Huebert could not say. But he did note that catching spies in Canada is not unheard of.

“It would be naive of us to think that those that have interest against us wouldn’t have their agents somehow involved or actually over here in Canada,” he said.

However, Huebert also says that it’s hard to know whether or how Canada is prioritizing intelligence — and that’s maybe necessary.

“The whole essence of an intelligence service is to keep itself as secret as possible. If you and me know about it and what they’re doing, our adversaries will know what they’re doing,” he said. 

Espionage, interference ‘including through cyber means’

CBC News contacted CSIS for comment and was referred to a recent hearing before the federal standing committee on foreign affairs and international development with CSIS assistant director Paul Lynd.

At the Feb. 12 hearing, Lynd described how the Arctic is under threat “not only from growing militarization and the effects of climate change but also, increasingly, from espionage and foreign interference activities, including through cyber means.”

Lynd also said CSIS has been sharing more information in the roughly past two years with both territorial governments and Indigenous communities across the North, including about resource development on Indigenous lands.

“For example, we have provided multiple briefings on critical minerals, economic security and the activities of hostile foreign state actors to empower partners with relevant national security insights so these can be considered as part of decision-making processes,” he said.

Lynd also said that northern “partners proactively contact us with information of concern about the behaviour and activities of threat-related actors.”

CBC News contacted the N.W.T. government about this. In a statement, Premier R.J. Simpson says his government is in regular contact with federal security agencies about outside interests in the North and Arctic.

“I am briefed on security issues and, as is standard practice, I am not at liberty to discuss the details of those discussions,” Simpson says.

Simpson’s statement adds that the federal government is responsible for decisions on the use of federal intelligence agencies.

However, Simpson also said the federal government must “ensure that its national security and intelligence efforts reflect the realities of the North and are carried out in partnership with territorial and Indigenous governments.”