'Use it or lose it'

RESOLUTE BAY, NU. -- Canada will build two new military facilities within contested Arctic waters to bolster its sovereign claim over the fabled Northwest Passage, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced yesterday.

He said the Canadian Forces will install a new army training centre and a deep-water port at distant points of the Arctic archipelago that has been coveted for centuries as a possible trade route to Asia.

"Protecting national sovereignty, the integrity of our borders, is the first and foremost responsibility of a national government, a responsibility which has too often been neglected," Harper said, citing what he called the "first principle of Arctic sovereignty: Use it or lose it."

The prime minister made the announcement barely 600 km from the magnetic North Pole in one of the coldest settlements on Earth.

The frigid hamlet of Resolute Bay will be home to a new army training centre for cold-weather fighting that houses up to 100 military personnel.

DEEPSEA PORT

The prime minister also announced a new deepsea port will be built for navy and civilian purposes on the north end of Baffin Island, in the abandoned old zinc-mining village of Nanisivik.

Harper said both installations will help back up Canada's ownership claim to the waters and natural resources of the Northwest Passage -- a claim disputed by countries including the United States, Japan, and the entire European Union.

Speaking in a storage shed protecting him against howling winds on a barren, rock-strewn highland, Harper said the announcements tell the world Canada has a "real, growing, long-term presence in the Arctic."

The multimillion-dollar announcements stem from Conservative campaign commitments in the last election, and Harper's northern trip had been planned for months.

But they happen to coincide with Russia's dramatic move to place a flag underneath the North Pole while claiming the area's resources as its own.

Harper also announced the 4,100-member Canadian Rangers patrol will be increased by another 900 members.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and a group of Rangers -- the rifle-toting, Inuit volunteer force -- were also on hand for Harper's announcement.