Canada's Arctic Defence Push: ICE Pact to NORAD

Featured image: The Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent (left) and U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy during a joint Arctic Ocean mission. Photo: Petty Officer 3rd Class Patrick Kelley, U.S. Coast Guard, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

Officials from Canada, the United States and Finland wrapped up three days of icebreaker talks in Québec City and Ottawa on Oct. 21, 2026, the latest step in a month of Canadian Arctic defence activity. The meetings under the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort, known as the ICE Pact, ran from Oct. 19 to 21, according to Canada’s Defence Investment Agency. All three countries now have icebreakers under contract and in production, the agency said.

The talks came as Canada keeps working closely with the U.S. military on continental defence through NORAD, while the two countries remain locked in a trade dispute. Over the past six weeks, Ottawa has reported progress on radar, ships, Coast Guard patrols and allied exercises in the North.

Inside the ICE Pact meetings

Delegates toured Davie Shipyard in Lévis, Quebec, which is building the Canadian Coast Guard’s Polar Max icebreaker in parallel at Davie’s Nordic Yard Finland in Helsinki. An industry day hosted by Naval Quebec drew more than 75 companies from the three countries.

The national coordinators set their 2026 priorities as:

expanding trilateral industrial cooperation and production capacity
training skilled shipbuilding workers
positioning the partners in the global icebreaker market
reducing bottlenecks to speed delivery
shared research and development

Canada pointed to its new National Shipbuilding Academy as its workforce contribution. The coordinators agreed to keep advancing joint work in 2027.

A new polar icebreaker takes shape in Vancouver

A week earlier, on Oct. 14, the Coast Guard laid the keel of the polar icebreaker CCGS Imnaryuaq at Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards, according to a Coast Guard news release. The government says it will be the largest vessel ever built for the Coast Guard and able to operate year-round in the high Arctic.

The ship is named for a cape on Banks Island, Northwest Territories, and the name was chosen with Inuit organizations. Canada is buying two polar icebreakers, the second from Chantier Davie.

Coast Guard starts Arctic security patrols

The Coast Guard is also taking on a security role. On Oct. 15, it said the CCGS Des Groseilliers and CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent had completed their first maritime security patrols in Arctic waters south of Victoria Island, around Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, according to a second release. The new mandate comes from the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration Systems and Borders Act, which received Royal Assent on March 26, 2026.

The patrols used new infrared camera systems on Coast Guard helicopters, Dash-8 aircraft and the Louis S. St-Laurent, part of an $816 million investment. Eight more Arctic-capable vessels are to get the equipment. “With the potential of security threats at our doorstep, maritime domain awareness is a vital aspect in asserting our sovereignty,” Defence Minister David McGuinty said.

NORAD drills over Labrador and Greenland

From Sept. 13 to 26, the Royal Canadian Air Force took part in Operation ARCTIC VANGUARD 26, a NORAD operation run mainly from 5 Wing Goose Bay, Labrador, according to the Department of National Defence. The exercise brought together more than 200 personnel and 19 aircraft from Canada, the United States and Denmark, plus a NATO E-3 AWACS surveillance plane.

Canada sent CF-18 Hornets, a CC-130 Hercules, a CH-149 Cormorant and a CH-146 Griffon. They flew alongside U.S. Air Force F-16s and Royal Danish Air Force F-35s.

The radar and the money behind it

The largest single Arctic project is the Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar. In June 2026, Canada signed agreements with Australia and BAE Systems Australia to acquire radar technology based on Australia’s Jindalee network, the Defence Investment Agency said. Canada has committed $2.5 billion to Australia for the radar itself within a program of more than $6 billion, and is targeting initial operational capability by December 2029. Ottawa says it is the first time Canada has led a major capability development within NORAD. Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles called it “the biggest defence export agreement in Australia’s history.”

The bill for all of this is rising. Canada has committed to NATO to raise total defence spending to 4% of GDP by 2030 and 5% by 2035, the Parliamentary Budget Officer noted in an Oct. 6 primer. That means lifting core military spending from about 2% of GDP now to 3.5%. Under a gradual path, the PBO estimates core defence spending would reach $163.6 billion in 2035-36. Compared with staying at 2%, the extra spending would add $63.7 billion to that year’s federal deficit.

Additional details

Pacific and Bering Sea: HMCS Ottawa returned to Esquimalt, B.C., on Oct. 9 after more than four months away, including simulated maritime strikes in the Bering Sea with the U.S. Air Force under Operation LATITUDE, National Defence said.
Chartered icebreaker: Ottawa chartered a crewed Polar Class 3 icebreaker from Qikiqtaaluk Horizon Arctic Services for the 2026 Arctic season, which ends Nov. 30.
Outstanding decisions: the PBO lists the review of Canada’s fighter jet program, submarine supplier talks and an airborne early-warning aircraft among unresolved procurements. Canada remains committed to an initial 16 F-35As during the review.
Related coverage: See our reports on the EU’s new Arctic strategy and icebreakers and the Joint Expeditionary Force in the High North.

Dollar figures in this article are in Canadian dollars unless stated otherwise.

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Canada Arctic Defence: Icebreaker Pact Talks, NORAD Drills and Coast Guard Patrols