Good afternoon, everyone. It is fantastic to be back home in the Northwest Territories.

Minister, Minister Alty, Minister Chartrand, Minister McGuinty, Secretary of State Fuhr, thank you all and those you work with for helping to make today happen. 

I'd like to thank the members of the 440 Transport Squadron for hosting us and for your service defending Canada and our communities. 

Thank you, Premier Simpson, for your leadership. I'm honoured. My colleagues and I are honoured to be joined by Indigenous leadership from across the North and the Arctic. Your partnership has made today possible. Your partnership will be essential to moving forward from today. Indigenous peoples have been the stewards of this land since time immemorial and only by working in partnership within Indigenous rights holders, the territorial governments, only through that partnership can we build lasting prosperity. Only with that partnership can we build the North and the Arctic sustainably and ensure that the people of this region fully benefit from our actions.

Yes. Awesome. That's good. I've never had a drum accompany that. It's good. 

This is a historic day and this historic day has been a long time coming. 1958, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker asked Canadians to consider, and I quote, "a new imagination for the Arctic". He portrayed the North as Canada's last great frontier, part of our national consciousness. 

Well, certainly an area that contains 40% of Canada's land mass and over 70% of our coastline is at the very heart of our nation.

But you have been patient because, well, it's at the heart physically of our nation. It hasn't always been treated as such. Over my lifetime, successive governments have helped make investments in new mines and ports, roads and bridges, outposts and sometimes satellite systems, but too often these steps have been taken without, or have been taken, sorry, with great caution or only after long delays. Too often, the investments were made with inadequate consultation and partnership. Too often, they were made one at a time, piecemeal, not connected, either to the community or to each other. In short, they lacked the scale of ambition and the depth of strategy worthy of this vast region and its people.

That's why in response to input from Indigenous rights holders, territorial governments, other stakeholders last September we refer to the Major Projects Office a transformative strategy called the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor. And since then, so-called MPO has been engaging with rights holders, governments, partners, territorial governments, federal departments, the private sector to translate the high-level strategy into an action plan with an integrated set of projects that complement the major investments that we are now making in our defence and security in the Arctic.

The federal government has the capacity to implement this broad and expansive vision. At this pivotal moment, as our economy and our sovereignty face new threats, we are confronted with an imperative.

From day one, Canada's new government has been clear that true Canadian sovereignty is anchored right here in a strong and secure North. Only four days after being sworn in, almost exactly a year ago today, I was in Iqaluit to announce that the Canadian Armed Forces would establish a sustained year-round presence in the Arctic to protect our sovereignty across land, air and sea. And we've already delivered that.

Today, the Forces patrols the Arctic 365 days a year, including through Operation NANOOK. In our first federal budget a few months ago, we launched the $1 billion Arctic Infrastructure Fund to build new roads, rail, airports, bridges and ports. Last month, the Minister of Indigenous Services announced new measures to make life more affordable for Indigenous communities in the North, including lowering food costs and improving access to childcare and education.

And today, we are announcing a series of transformative initiatives that will help unlock the full potential of this vast region. We're moving forward with an ambitious new plan backed by more than $40 billion of investments in Canada's North and Arctic. Investments to defend our sovereignty and to deter new threats. Investments to connect, build and transform Northern and Arctic communities. 

With this plan, we are taking control of our future. We will no longer rely on others to defend our Arctic security or to fuel our economy. We're taking full responsibility for defending our sovereignty and we are unleashing a range of new economic opportunities for the over 140,000 Northerners who will benefit from stronger, more connected communities, more opportunities and a higher standard of living.

Canada’s first duty is to ensure your safety. To do this, last June our new government launched an ambitious mission to rebuild, rearm, and reinvest in the Canadian Armed Forces. Recruitment in the Armed Forces has increased by 13% since June. We are on track to meet NATO’s 2% target this year.

And as part of our plan to rebuild, rearm and reinvest in the Canadian Armed Forces, we must ensure that the women and men who serve have not only the presence but also the reach to defend every corner of this region.

To that end, we are building four new Northern operational hubs and nodes in Whitehorse, in Resolute Bay, in Rankin Inlet and in Cambridge Bay. 

And we are upgrading our national defence infrastructure in Yellowknife, Inuvik, Iqaluit and Goose Bay. These locations are at the heart of our mission to defend our territory. What they'll do is they will enable the Forces to deploy aircraft across all remote areas of the Arctic.

We are building military centres of vital importance that are also essential for strengthening community safety. These facilities make it possible to respond more quickly to search‑and‑rescue operations, natural disasters, and emergencies, even in the most remote regions.

These defense investments will strengthen our military's presence and at the same time, what they will require is new energy infrastructure, new broadband, new telecommunications services, new wastewater services. What that means is as we build these military operations, we can transform and benefit the surrounding communities. 

The combination of these defence investments with the nation building projects we're announcing today will strengthen Arctic security and open new economic opportunities while connecting communities. 

I'll go back to Diefenbaker. He asked Canadians to reimagine the potential of the North with what he called his roads to resources program. He envisioned new airstrips, a railroad to Great Slave Lake and a winding manmade line carved through this rugged terrain.

Now, since then, back in the late 50s, since then, as the people of the North know all too well, climate change has only reinforced the need for action. Isolated communities in the Mackenzie Valley rely on a seasonal winter road and summer resupply barges which are both becoming increasingly unreliable with melting permafrost in the winter and low water levels in the Mackenzie in the summer. So right now, there is no road open reliably in all seasons.

Ever since I was a kid in Fort Smith, I've been hearing about the possibility of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, and I'm not that young. In four decades, there have been a series of false starts and endless assessments. That record ends today.

Today, we're taking up the Mackenzie Valley Highway at our Major Projects Office. This summer, we will start construction. The first phase of the all-season highway will stretch more than 800 kilometres from Wrigley to Norman Wells. The second phase will extend all the way to Inuvik. When complete, this vital artery will link Yellowknife and Inuvik and it'll cut almost in half the time it takes to drive between them. The new highway will be resilient both to the changing seasons and the changing climate, providing year-round access to isolated communities, allowing critical supplies and medicines to reach people in remote areas.

It will also unlock immense potential for mining from copper to zinc to critical minerals and we will build this highway in partnership with territorial and Indigenous governments so that the benefits promised nearly 70 years ago are felt in the communities directly.

And to be even more specific about how we're moving, we will start construction of the Oscar Creek Bridge relocation, the Christina Creek realignment and Highway 1 targeted resurfacing all beginning this summer.

In addition to connecting communities by roadways, we will also connect them by air. We are modernizing the runways in Rankin Inlet and upgrading the Inuvik airport to allow larger aircraft to land, reduce costs, and ensure reliable, fully operational airports for the communities that depend on them.

As we connect our communities to each other, we also will connect them to the world. 

Now, despite our unique strategic advantage in Canada, our unique strategic advantage in bordering three oceans and connecting those oceans, we don't have a deepwater port on the Arctic Ocean. Grays Bay Port and Road will change all of that.

We will build a new deepwater port at Grays Bay in Nunavut and a 230-kilometre, all-season road connecting it to the Territories border. This will help unlock mineral resources and enable their easy export. We'll also work in partnership with the Kitikmeot Inuit Association to realize the transformative potential of this decades long dream and to connect the Grays Bay Port and Road to the wider North, including Yellowknife. We're going to refer to the Major Projects Office a new Arctic economic and security corridor that will build a 400-kilometre all-season road through the Slave Geological Province to Nunavut's border.

So you put that all together, we will have the first all-season road connecting Nunavut to our national highway system. Nunavik connected to our national highway system. We will have an enablement of new resource exploration and development in the mineral rich Slave Geological Province of the Northwest Territories. In Nunavut, we will have open access to new export markets so we can realize more of the potential of these multiple new trade deals that Canada is securing abroad.

It is not only about what we are building, but also about how we are building. We are building sustainably by reducing emissions and investing in a future centred on clean energy. We are building in solidarity with Canadian workers, creating hundreds of thousands of well‑paid careers. And finally, we are building a partnership with territorial and Indigenous governments to deliver undeniable economic benefits to the people of the North.

This is a generational plan, to build and connect the North, to bring security, prosperity and opportunity to workers and families. 

Now, to sustain all of that growth, we need clean, reliable and affordable power. Fuel prices in the North can reach six to 10 times the levels of the rest of Canada. This just reinforces the need to transition to cleaner options. So we are going to unlock the North's enormous hydro power. 

In November, we referred the Iqaluit Nukkiksautiit Hydro Project to the Major Projects Office. This is Nunavut's first 100% Inuit owned hydroelectricity project. It can save nearly $2 billion in diesel costs over the next 50 years, while providing that reliable, affordable emissions-free power to people in the Arctic. 

Today, we're going to take another step forward by referring the Taltson Hydro Expansion Project to the MPO.

Taltson, yes, Taltson will add 60 megawatts to the existing system, doubling the capacity right here in the Northwest Territories, creating a unified hydro grid that links 11 communities, powers 70% of the Territories population with reliable, clean electricity. 

You know, when you bring together the major projects that we're referring, they represent around $10 billion in investment and will create more than 10,000 jobs during their construction, and that is separate in the scale of the investments and the jobs created from the defence investments.

More fundamentally, what we're doing is creating projects that are, if you will, force multipliers. Their construction will unleash new career opportunities, higher paycheques, faster trips, stronger communities and they will make large investments possible by connecting the Canadian North and Arctic.

Our plan to defend, connect and build the North will reinforce Canada's strategic autonomy. That independence will also be bolstered by the new trade and defence partnerships that we are striking with trusted partners.

This evening, I leave for Norway to deepen our cooperation on defence, trade, and critical minerals with our Nordic allies. My visit will include joint military exercises aimed at strengthening operational cooperation and readiness among key allies in the event that Canada must be defended. And next week, I will meet with Prime Minister Starmer of the United Kingdom to discuss reinforcing our collective defence. The foundation of our sovereignty, our independence, and our strength lies in what we build here at home, together.

So to conclude, when John Diefenbaker all those years ago set out to reimagine the North, he rightly envisioned that it required more than a stronger economy. It required a more secure border. But ultimately, it required a future where Canadians have, and I quote, "control of their own destiny". We are masters in our own house. 

And today, we are taking major steps to realize that vision, to take control and to build the true North strong and free together. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.