Military looks to establish naval reserve in Yukon

Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

By RCI, CBC News

‘We feel that there’s many Yukoners that want to play a role in something like this,’ premier says

Yukon’s premier is touting a new agreement to establish a naval reserve in the territory, saying there needs to be a stronger military presence in the North.

“We’re really quite excited about it. It’s going to lead to a number of opportunities for Yukoners,” said Premier Ranj Pillai.

“We know the Department of Defence is very concerned about how we build infrastructure in the North. We know that Yukoners and Canadians are concerned about that as well.

So it felt like, you know, the timing was right to really push this.”

Pillai and federal Defence Minister Bill Blair signed a “letter of intent” in Ottawa on Monday to pursue the idea. The Royal Canadian Navy will send members to Whitehorse next summer to “further explore viability and develop options for a naval reserve footprint in the territory,” according to a news release from the federal government.

Pillai said talks between the territory and the defence minister have been going on for the last 18 months or so, but the interest in having a military reserve unit in the Yukon goes back “a long time, probably decades.”

Canada has 24 Naval Reserve divisions across the country employing more than 4,000 people, most of them on a part-time basis. Reservists are people who might be working in other fields while also pursuing a military career. They can volunteer for deployments, but are under no obligation to participate in missions overseas.

Yukon’s Arctic coastline is relatively small compared to the other territories, but Pillai said that’s not a consideration when it comes to establishing a naval reserve. He pointed to existing Naval Reserves in land-locked provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan, and how members there participate in things like flood and wildfire response.

Yukon MP Brendan Hanley described naval reserve divisions as serving an ambassadorial role.

“What they are is, they are like a bridge between the Canadian Armed Forces naval division and the community,” Hanley said.

“The navy wants to to boost its membership. It serves to potentially recruit Yukoners into the navy who could be deployed anywhere in the country, in fact anywhere in the world. So that’s the idea, is that it’s establishing that community connection.”

Military footprint in North

The premier said he also sees the establishment of a naval reserve in Yukon as part of a longer-term effort to beef up Canada’s military footprint in the North, including with a potential deep-water port in the western Arctic.

“I think the Canadian Navy has always looked towards the Beaufort [Sea],” Pillai said.

“We know the Canadian Armed Forces is looking at a procurement of submarines in the future. We know that there’s no western Arctic infrastructure that Canada has access to. So I mean, that’s probably a number of years away, but I think it’s going to be an important discussion.”

Pillai said the territory will provide office space for the military to be in Whitehorse next summer to start figuring out the next steps.

“They feel, and we feel, that there’s many Yukoners that want to play a role in something like this. So the demand is there, and then they’ll understand where the infrastructure that they require should be built, and can be built,” Pillai said.