I don't know how to address this suffice to say that there is indeed a polar ice cap. I've walked on it and driven on it in BV206 while serving at CFS Alert.
The polar ice cap expands (in winter) and contracts (in summer) every year - and has always done so. When it contracts in spring & summer, ice floes to the south - witness those things like ice bergs floating off the coast of Newfoundland during that time if year (Titanic??).
CFS Alert is named for the HMS Alert which wintered 10km south of the station in winter
1875/76 - so the passages were even open way back then during the season. CFS Alert is located on the very northern tip of Ellesmere Island and is the most northerly permanently inhabited place in the world (by Canadian Military personnel and civilian contractors doing environmental studies and listening to the Ruskies). Arctic Expeditions launch from the Station there as it is the closest to the North Pole at 850ish km away.
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A link to the
NASA page on the Polar Ice Cap; about half way down the page, they have the satellite imagery time lapse from 27 Feb - 7 Mar 2025. You'll also notice by the graphs (yearly since 1970) that the Arctic Polar Ice Cap is doing what it usually does (expand and contract) with the seasons.
We have many communities in our north; that's why we have cutters and require them.
And a pic here ... of what it looks like in Alert Bay on July 1st .... that's me polar bear dipping. Even then .... the place is still filled with ice and all those little bergs and floes, freeze back up together in the fall. Outside f the bay, the ice stays in one giant cap ... it breaks up along the shorelins due to tides and the fact that all of those islands are ... solid rock with a lot of cliff faces for it to bounce off of.
Long story short: If we want to see it used as shipping lanes, we're going to have to cut through the passage to do so in winter. And given thatit is the Arctic, you're going to have to have cutters up there even in spring, summer, fall should a freeze occur and any ships become at risk of being frozen in.
Me? My thoughts are, "say no to shipping!" through Canada's north. It's a beautiful and unique environment and ecosystem. But, if we Canadians want that, then we need to put out the doneros to protect it. Currently, our Navy's Harry DeWolf Class Ships are Arctic capable, but we'll need more of them! It's a big Arctic to patrol with all kinds of waterways throughout. And, if you want to patrol and protect it in the winter too, we'd better have cutters there too for ease of doing so ... or else someone else's will be.
IMO.
