NDP says Liberal Arctic announcement ignores challenges facing Northerners « Canada’s NDP

NDP MP Lori Idlout (Nunavut) made the following statement:

“After years of neglect and broken promises from the Liberals, Northerners and Nunavummiut deserve a leader who cares about the challenges and threats Nunavut and the North are forced to endure. Decisions about Canada’s Arctic need to be made through cooperation, consultation the consent of Indigenous people and Arctic and territorial communities. Flying in and out once a year to make announcements and re-announcements – all of which are half measures, anyway – is not what cooperation looks like.

Mark Carney’s Arctic announcement for housing and energy only meets the tip of an iceberg for what is needed. There was nothing for deep water port funding for Qikiqtarjuaq and Grays Bay, and nothing to support and grow the Rangers, who pay for their own equipment. Liberals have a track record of announcements for the North with little follow through, the construction for the Arctic Bay small craft harbour announced in 2019, for example, hasn’t even started.

Pierre Poilievre’s plans are even worse. He pledged a military base in the North with not one dime of benefit to the community that hosts it.

Canada’s NDP defence and Arctic sovereignty plan was built by listening to Nunavummiut. An NDP government will invest in defence to meet the target of spending two per cent of GDP by 2032 – and we laid out a strategy to not only invest in the members of the Canadian Armed Forces, Canada’s security and Arctic sovereignty, but also in Northern communities and Northerners.”