Earlier this week, Harper announced plans to spend $7 billion over 25 years to build and outfit a series of Arctic patrol boats. He also repeated his pledge to build a strategically located deepwater Arctic port.
But some say spending billions on patrol boats and a naval port won't cut much ice in international disputes over the North if all they're protecting is empty land and suffering communities.
Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik says he welcomes the military spending.
But he says he wishes Ottawa would try harder to advance Arctic sovereignty by investing in infrastructure to help the people who live there.
A proposal to build a series of small-craft harbours, which would benefit fisheries and tourism across the territory, has been awaiting a decision from the federal cabinet for more than a year.
Elisapee Sheutiapik, the mayor of Iqaluit and head of the Nunavut Association of Municipalities, says Ottawa has an obligation to invest in her communities because many of them were created to further Canada's sovereignty.
NDP MP for the Western Arctic Dennis Bevington says ownership of the Arctic means developing viable communities and economies, not just occasionally steaming through the Northwest Passage or sending some soldiers up on snowmobiles.
