A person walks through a blizzard in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, on March 20.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
Solomon Awa is president of the Nunavut Association of Municipalities.
Kandis Jameson is president of the Northwest Territories Association of Communities.
Lauren Hanchar is president of the Association of Yukon Communities.
In Nunavut’s Cambridge Bay, where polar bears are a common sight, a person curled up in a warm bed is woken in the middle of the night. It’s cold. Very cold. The temperature has dropped below −40. No one should be outside in weather like that without a home. But the person in the bed’s time is up. They give up their spot so someone else can get warm.
This is called “hotbedding.” With limited access to safe, stable housing, some people take turns sleeping in the same bed to escape the cold. This is not a common practice, but a necessary one in a place where being homeless can be fatal. In the North and Arctic, that’s what a housing crisis looks like: often hidden, always dangerous.
As Yellowknife Mayor Ben Hendriksen bluntly puts it: “You can’t survive being homeless at 40 below zero.”
Too often, these lived realities are missing from national conversations about Arctic sovereignty. But in the North and Arctic, sovereignty and security aren’t abstract. They’re tied to housing, health, infrastructure, climate change and emergency response capacity. When people can’t access housing, communities can’t retain the work force needed to deliver critical services, respond to crises or seize economic opportunities.
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Last month, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities released the Future of Northern and Arctic Canada report, which shows how visible homelessness is concentrated in Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Iqaluit, while hidden homelessness is widespread across smaller communities. Yellowknife’s homelessness rate is 1.5 per cent – roughly twice Vancouver’s and six times Toronto’s. Indigenous people are disproportionately represented among those experiencing homelessness in the territories, reflecting deeper inequities.
Thriving communities are the foundation of sovereignty, and local governments are essential partners in building them.
For a secure and strong North, defence spending or new operational hubs aren’t enough. Canada must invest in the communities that provide the infrastructure and gathering spaces for everyday success.
There’s no better place to start building our communities than by addressing two major challenges: housing and homelessness. Local leaders credit federal support – especially federal homelessness programs like Reaching Home – for funding shelters, warming centres and prevention measures. Reaching Home is scheduled to conclude in 2028. Renewing it would provide stability for communities in environments where costs are high and needs are urgent.
Members of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment participate in defensive operations around Edzo Airport in Behchoko, Northwest Territories, on Feb. 18.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
However, housing is not just an investment, it’s also a capacity issue. Short construction seasons, aging stock and high transportation costs drive prices up. At the same time, staff housing shortages make it difficult to recruit and retain the people who keep essential services such as water systems, roads and buildings, and emergency management running. Even when we receive funding for housing construction, workers don’t have the housing to live in to build it during our short construction season. When people apply for work here, we often get this question: Does the job come with housing?
To strengthen Canada’s sovereignty, local infrastructure should be treated as defence-enabling and supported accordingly. Along with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, we’re calling for a dedicated northern and Arctic local-government infrastructure fund, and for core local assets – like local roads and bridges, water and waste water systems, municipal buildings and recreation facilities – to be recognized as multi-use and eligible for defence-related funding. Small things count too. For example, federal funding doesn’t cover the range of needs in trucked water systems, including fleets, garages, and staff training. These points of admissibility for federal funding go a long way in our communities.
Programs also need to match northern realities: small teams, limited staff housing and administrative capacity that cannot absorb multiple application-heavy, one-off programs. Predictable, allocation-based funding where possible, simplified reporting, and support for operations, maintenance and replacement are what allow communities to plan and deliver.
Canada can’t fly sovereignty into the Arctic. It must sustain it – year after year – by ensuring northern communities are safe, stable and thriving. That begins with the basics: housing that protects people from the cold, and the municipal capacity to keep communities running.