Experts question if Canada has enough diplomats for Arctic ambitions

OTTAWA — As Canada plans an ambitious expansion of defence and economic activity in the Arctic, regional experts are asking whether it has enough diplomats to build the ties it wants in the North.

“The Arctic is a geopolitical hot spot,” said Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. “The (Global Affairs) department does not have huge bench strength when it comes to Arctic diplomacy.”

In 2023, the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau closed the Canadian International Arctic Centre, a hub for diplomacy that had been operating within Canada’s embassy in Norway since 2009.

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In a briefing note obtained by The Canadian Press, Global Affairs Canada cited “high costs in Oslo” and anticipated savings of $550,000 per year.

“The hybrid work model has demonstrated the department’s ability to engage worldwide through technology … diminishing the relative advantage of operational staff located in the field,” says the briefing note.

Artur Wilczynski, who served as Canada’s ambassador to Oslo from 2014 to 2018, called the decision to close CIAC “incoherent.”

“You need to develop a cohort of people who actually have a deep understanding and knowledge of a very complex and diverse region,” he said. “You do not get that from a Zoom call.”

In December 2024, the Trudeau government released an Arctic foreign policy that committed to boosting collaboration to face down emerging foreign threats.

The policy said the region was “no longer free from tension” because of increased geopolitical instability following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ottawa appointed Virginia Mearns as Arctic ambassador last year and promised new consulates in Greenland and Alaska.

In February, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand opened Canada’s first consulate in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk.

Due to a shortage of available buildings, the Canadian consulate operates out of the Icelandic consulate.

A briefing document estimates the operating cost of the consulate at $8.76 million over five years, roughly $1.75 million annually.

The consulate originally was intended to employ three full-time equivalents but currently has only one staffer.

“These figures were prepared for planning purposes … and may be temporarily higher than the actual costs incurred during implementation due to a number of factors, including employing fewer staff than originally planned,” Global Affairs Canada said in a media statement.

The department did not say when the consulate in Alaska will open or how many staffers it will have.

An internal Global Affairs audit reported in May 2025 that closing the Canadian International Arctic Centre deprived the Global Arctic Leadership Initiative of “key contacts in the Arctic.”

“This led to a certain loss of expertise, outreach and support for the missions,” says the audit, adding that means fewer opportunities for “Indigenous and northern speakers.”

Obed said this shows the shortcomings in Ottawa’s approach to engagement with Inuit.

“These new times require greater administrative and political and policy footprints in order to do it right,” he said.

Wilczynski argues that Canada's promised billions for defence and infrastructure in the North needs to be accompanied by a commensurate increase in diplomats.

“I don’t think that there is a more immediate and proximate security, economic and political interest for Canada and Canadians than the Arctic,” said Wilczynski, who also worked as an executive in Canadian intelligence.

Visibility and para-diplomacy

Marc Lanteigne, a political scientist from Montreal who teaches in Norway and Greenland, said Canada has made itself more visible in Nordic capitals in recent years.

He said this has been achieved by sending larger delegations to the annual Arctic Circle assembly in Iceland and through meetings between Canadian foreign ministers and their Nordic counterparts.

“We have a lot to contribute, not only in our particular corner of the Arctic, but (across) the region as a whole,” Lanteigne said from Tromso, Norway.

Lanteigne said people in Greenland and Norway are troubled by the “very sudden” rise in international interest in the Arctic, driven by new shipping routes and U.S. President Donald Trump’s talk of annexing Greenland, Canada and Iceland.

“A lot of the issues regarding sovereignty and regarding the livelihoods of the people of the Arctic sometimes get lost in the crush,” Lanteigne said.

He said Canada does not necessarily need a large diplomatic cohort in places like Nuuk and Anchorage if those on the ground make connections for Indigenous communities, businesses and researchers.

He said this type of “para-diplomacy” is more important in an age of geopolitical tumult.

“Our capitals are right now in opposition, but we are facing a lot of similar concerns,” he said.

With files from The Canadian Press, CityNews and Global News