Arctic sovereignty in a dramatically changing geopolitical landscape is expected to be a major focus in the coming year, and that means changes are coming to the national shipbuilding strategy.

Global Affairs Minister Melanie Joly launched the federal government’s Arctic Foreign Policy earlier this month following months of consultation with territorial, provincial and Indigenous governments.

The policy was also developed in consultation with what the federal government called “like-minded Arctic partners” including Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the US.

That could mean big changes to the national shipbuilding strategy with a special emphasis on icebreakers says Master Mariner and head of the Marine Institute’s School of Maritime Studies, Kris Drodge.

“A lot of the reasons why we have a national shipbuilding strategy is to evolve our ice-breaking capabilities and get up into the Arctic,” says Drodge. “We are seeing countries like China, like Russia, that are continuing to push the boundaries of jurisdictional limits in the Arctic, so we will continue to see further news on that for sure,” in 2025.