The Canadian government is partially living up to an election promise by asserting a greater security presence in the Canadian Arctic. PM Harper announced yesterday spending $3 billion to purchase (six to eight) Canadian-made Arctic patrol vessels.  Added to the acquisition of this new northern fleet will be the construction of a deep-water port to accommodate these vessels at a location to be determined over the short-term.  The downfall to this announcement is that these patrol vessels will not be icebreakers — essentially limiting their patrols of the entire Northwest Passage to the spring-summer period, while they will still be able to patrol the west and east approaches to the Passage year-round. From my understanding the logic behind backing away from purchasing straight-up icebreakers is that these patrol vessels will be built with a reinforced hull-structure to accommodate the icy Arctic waters and could be used in operations globally if deemed necessary by the Canadian Forces.

Here is the link to the story:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2007/07/10/north-shipreax.html