A proposal in support of Canada’s long-term interests.

This Proposal is to build, in co-operation with Inuit and other First Nations, a permanent, self-contained, self-sufficient city in Canada’s far north.

As a first approximation, it is proposed to be located on the Northwest Passage, possibly at Resolute. It would be environmentally closed except for air and water intake. A target population of between 100,000 and 200,000 would be planned for. At a moderate population density, this would result in a city of between 50 and 100 square km, with outlying support structures for agriculture, power, effluent processing, transportation, and heavy industry. Power would be supplied by deep geothermal or CANDU nuclear sources. The entire city would be protected from the Arctic environment by a flexible cover, producing a clement internal micro-climate. From a distance, the city would look like a collection of very large igloos. The location would be on bedrock well above current sea level.

This first city would be a template for a series throughout the northern areas of Canada. Each would be a component in the establishment of a population presence in a greater part of Canada, ensuring that territorial claims have a “ground reality”. Incentives may be necessary to entice early settlers to move to these cities, but as the infrastructure and social structures develop, they would become desirable homes for a growing number of current and new Canadians.

This project would build on traditional Canadian strengths: transportation, heavy construction, energy production, communications, and social harmony; to name a few. It would also necessitate further developments in transportation, energy efficiency, recycling, food production, high-strength materials, harsh-climate adaptations; and so on.

This first project would provide Canadians a new frontier, a new challenge, and a common goal. In the medium term, it would help Canada enforce territorial claims as the Arctic becomes a greater target of other nations’ claims. In the long term, it would set a pattern for our increasingly urban civilisation to survive with a minimal impact on Earth’s environment.

An earlier, more limited proposal by Pierre Leblanc, former commander of the Canadian Forces in the Arctic, was published in the Hill Times on 11 August 2011. The original article is behind a paywall at http://www.hilltimes.com/opinion-piece/opinion/2011/08/08/resolute-bay-should-be-developed-as-a-major-government-facility-arctic/27579 and a pdf is available at http://www.arctique.uqam.ca/IMG/pdf/Resolute_Bay_should_be_developed.pdf