Published 8:50 am Wednesday, September 23, 2026 By William Koblensky Varela Local Journalism Initiative Northern News Service The Royal Canadian Air Force’s forward operating location in Iqaluit will be under construction from 2029 to 2040, a panel of federal defence employees told the Nunavut Trade Show on Sept. 15. The base will cost $5 billion, the panelists revealed. “Here in Iqaluit, you’re more likely to expect the fighters to operate out of here — maritime patrol aircraft, the new P-8, which is about a 737-sized aircraft, operate out of here. Search and rescue aircraft, and then, as required, some transportation aircraft would come in and out resupplying in the case of any kind of prolonged operation or or an exercise,” said Christian Middleton, project manager of the Iqaluit base for the Department of National Defence. Currently, the air force base at the Iqaluit airport has six fighter jet bays and a small garage. The future base will be built beside the Iqaluit Airport, where the hangars are currently located. A longer runway, ammunition storage, fuelling stations, hangars, operation centres and warehouses are part of the draft plan. Iqaluit will be the last Arctic base the air force builds in the North for the foreseeable future, with Goose Bay, N.L., Yellowknife and Inuvik starting construction first. The Department of National Defence has decided to spread out construction among the four locations over time to not overwhelm developers and take lessons learned from one base’s construction to the next. “What that will do is it’ll give Iqaluit time to take a look at Inuvik, and say, ‘What did they do? Do we like that?’” Middleton said. A request for construction proposals for the Iqaluit base is expected to be issued in January 2028. Whether Inuit-owned companies will get contracts for the construction on NORAD Northern Basing Infrastructure (NNBI) remains unknown, according to Antoine am Rhyn, procurement manager at Defence Construction Canada. “The determination of if NNBI will be reserved to Inuit firms or not has not been completed at this time,” am Rhyn said. Nearly 17 per cent of federal contracts in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut went to Indigenous business in 2023-2024. Audience member Kilikvak Kabloona asked how the influx of military operations would affect power in Iqaluit, possibly leading to more outages. “There’s been a power outage every day this summer. Can you tell us what the plans are to make sure what gets built here doesn’t further drain, and we don’t end up with a system that is far inferior to what you have?” Kabloona asked. Middleton said the air base would rely on a future hydroelectric facility powering Iqaluit, which has not yet been approved, nor finished its consultation process. A backup generator will also assist the air base, Middleton added. The Arctic military installations come with a total price tag of $32 billion, according to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s announcement in March.
Iqaluit $5-billion air force base to be constructed by 2040
