I think that any capability that is primarily organized around offensive operations is controversial for most Canadians. Because we are surrounded by three oceans and our southern border is guarded by a superpower, most Canadians believe, in effect, that we live in a gated community. Security is an afterthought for the majority of Canadians. I believe that the political system responds to this.
It is often difficult to articulate what exactly the threat to the Arctic is. There are threats that come through the Arctic in the form of missiles and possibly in the form of submarines, but by and large, our Arctic is fairly secure given the difficulty of operating up there.
In terms of the submarine threat, I think it is largely a hypothetical one. Certainly there is the possibility that the Russians, the Chinese or another nation—even one of our allies—might be able to put a submarine through there, but to what end is the principle concern. The ranges for things like submarine-launched ballistic missiles and the hypersonic cruise missiles some of them are capable of launching are such that really they aren't required to put a submarine to do such launches into our Arctic waters anymore, whereas during the 1960s that was not the case.
I think the submarine threat is largely a hypothetical one. It is possible that in the future, moving through Canadian waters might shorten the transit time for some submarine voyages and there might be a desire to do so. It would be a tricky manoeuvre, given the lack of information on hydrography and oceanography and the understanding of the bottom profile. The risk of grounding your sub or hitting the side of an underwater promontory or an island itself would be fairly significant.
That said, there is more to recommend submarines than simply the Arctic option. Clearly, they bring enormous capabilities in terms of strategic deterrents, in terms of their intelligence capability and especially in terms of the support to fleet operations for a whole variety of different functions that a Canadian task group might undertake while under way or train against prior to deployment.
All of those things recommend submarines, but explaining that to the Canadian public is a very challenging task. The technicalities of it and the levels of classification make it inherently difficult.