De-icing required! : Dégivrage requis! : la dimension historique de l'expérience de la Force aérienne du Canada dans l'Arctique

The retreat of multi-year sea ice raises the prospect of increasing accessibility to and through the Arctic region, increasing the viability of maritime transit routes (to complement the commercial polar overflights that have increased steadily since the end of the cold war) and of commercial exploitation of Arctic oil, gas and minerals to fuel a resource- hungry world. [...] The Canada First Defence Strategy directs the CF to “have the capacity to exercise control over and defend Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic.”3 As the chapters in this volume reveal, the RCAF has historically played a significant role in shaping the Arctic: from mapping activities, to search and rescue, to surveillance and control, to community develop- ment. [...] At the same time, the functional and symbolic roles the service performed made the RCAF the lynchpin of the govern- ment’s sovereignty strategy. [...] The decline of the MSF concept in the late 1950s, coupled with more general questions about the utility of the concept of Reserves in the nuclear age, meant that the RCAF Auxiliary squadrons found their cherished air defence and tactical air support roles substituted with that of an emergency and rescue role in support of civil defence. [...] The Canadian government, alert to the growing success of air operations in southern Canada, was keen to take advantage of the CGS ARCTIC’s voyage to explore the potential of aircraft in the Arctic.