Canada to bolster Arctic claim

OTTAWA: In the latest of a series of claims over portions of the Arctic, Canada said on Friday that it planned to build two new military bases in the far north to assert its sovereignty over the Northwest Passage.

The status of the shipping route, navigable only with the aid of icebreakers for a small part of the year, has been the source of a longstanding dispute that has pitted Canada against the United States and Russia.

Warming climate trends may reduce ice in the passage and make it a substantially shorter alternative to the Panama Canal for commercial shipping. The seabed under the route may also contain oil, gas and minerals that could be extracted if the ice cover diminishes.

Prime minister Stephen Harper, who has been touring the Canadian Arctic for several days, said the military would convert a former mining site in Nanisivik, in the territory of Nunavut, into a deep-water port and ship refueling station.

Existing government buildings in Resolute Bay, Nunavut, will be turned into an Arctic training center for the army, and the Canadian Rangers, mostly made up of Inuit volunteers, will be increased by 900 members and re-equipped.

Harper’s tour and announcements took place after a Russian mission planted a tiny flag in a titanium capsule on the seabed at the North Pole last week. While the effort was billed as a claim on the territory, it was seen as mostly symbolic.