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The Royal Canadian Navy<br />
heads North for<br />
OP NANOOK<br />
By Lieutenant (Navy) Mark Fifield<br />
Comprising over 40 per cent of Canada’s territory<br />
and approximately 100,000 inhabitants, the<br />
Canadian Arctic is rapidly undergoing a period<br />
of significant change. Retreating ice cover has provided<br />
new opportunities for increased shipping, tourism and<br />
natural resource exploration, which has raised<br />
expectations among Canadians of the government’s<br />
ability to respond to safety and security challenges in<br />
the North.<br />
The Government of<br />
Canada has made<br />
Canada’s North a<br />
cornerstone of its agenda<br />
through an integrated<br />
Northern Strategy that<br />
promotes the exercise of<br />
sovereignty, economic<br />
and social development,<br />
environmental protection,<br />
and enhanced<br />
governance in the region.<br />
HMCS St. John’s’<br />
embarked CH-124 Sea<br />
King helicopter hoists<br />
a ship’s diver during<br />
operations off the<br />
coast of Greenland on<br />
August 11.<br />
Photos: Cpl Malcolm Byers<br />
The role of the Canadian Forces (CF) is to support this<br />
agenda through its participation in surveillance and<br />
control operations such as Operation Nanook, which<br />
contributes to a more visible overall Canadian<br />
government presence in the North.<br />
Op Nanook is Canada’s premiere northern operation<br />
and the centrepiece of three CF sovereignty operations<br />
conducted annually in the Arctic. It is designed to<br />
strengthen preparedness, enhance interoperability with<br />
other governmental departments and agencies, and<br />
improve our ability to respond in a timely and effective<br />
manner when tasked to do so within a whole-ofgovernment<br />
framework.<br />
This year Op Nanook took place from August 1 to 26<br />
and involved more than 1,250 participants from the<br />
Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army (including the<br />
Canadian Rangers), Royal Canadian Air Force, and<br />
Canadian Special Operations Forces Command. Naval<br />
assets included the frigate HMCS St. John’s and the<br />
maritime coastal defence vessel HMCS Kingston.<br />
It was held in two separate locations in Canada’s<br />
Arctic. Land and air forces were deployed to the<br />
Western Arctic to communities such as Inuvik and<br />
Tsiigehtchic, N.W.T., while land, sea, air and special<br />
operations forces were deployed in the east to the<br />
Hudson Bay/Hudson Strait and Churchill, Man., areas.<br />
In addition to working with other government<br />
departments and agencies, the CF continues to work<br />
HDMS Triton manoeuvres<br />
ahead of HMCS St. John’s for a<br />
towing exercise in the Davis<br />
Strait, east of Baffin Island, on<br />
August 15.<br />
10 ROYAL CANADIAN NAVY www.navy.forces.gc.ca
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