The Economic Benefits of North Warning System Modernization

This study examines the economic impacts of the North Warning System (NWS) modernization. It begins by first providing a summary of the creation and evolution of the North American Aerospace and Defense Command (NORAD) and the NWS with a specific intention of setting the stage for the discussion on subsequent areas. Understanding how NORAD and the NWS developed to where it is today is important to understand the choices available to the Canadian government moving forward. Next, the current security environment in Canada’s North will be reviewed. The impact of climate change and global warming, new technology, and new threats changes the strategic environment in the North and Canada needs to revisit how it approaches these challenges. Based on this review of the security environment, the literature on socioeconomic studies, electoral districts and defence spending in the North can be presented along with the empirical data that exists from past studies. The study looks at five scenarios taking a rough order of magnitude look at possible economic benefits to Canada’s three northern territories and Labrador based on the requirement for modernizing the NWS, a critical issue for the future defence of Canada and North America.