ATCO Frontec: We ‘Know’ the North

With decades of experience working in Canada’s North, operating the North Warning System (NWS) alongside its Inuit partners, ATCO Frontec is ready to support the nation’s ambitious goals for NORAD Modernization.  

BY JAMES CARELESS

Northern Canada is a harsh, unforgiving environment where working conditions are difficult and supply lines are challenged. This is why you need a logistics and support company with experience working in the North, backed by the talents and skills of the people who live here.

ATCO Frontec is one such company. In 1987, it was the first Canadian contractor to operate NORAD’s North Warning System (NWS), the radar facility guarding North America’s Arctic frontier. Today, the 47-radar NWS is managed by Nasittuq Corporation, a joint venture between ATCO Frontec and the indigenous-owned Pan Arctic Inuit Logistics Corporation (the majority owner). It is one of many such sites that ATCO Frontec supports on behalf of military and civilian clients.

“The Frontec in our name comes from Frontier Technologies, which was the original name of the company we formed to manage the NWS,” said ATCO Frontec President, Jim Landon. “It speaks to our forward-looking positive attitude working in challenging environments, and doing the very best we can for our clients in these situations. (ATCO is short for the Alberta Trailer Company, which was founded in Calgary over 75 years ago.) As a defence contractor, we are uniquely positioned to serve NORAD and its modernization goals effectively through our extensive experience in the Arctic and our long-established Indigenous relationships.”

A LONG HISTORY OF
NORTHERN SERVICE

            Managing the North Warning System is a challenging assignment. After all, the NWS’ stations stretch along Canada’s Arctic coastline from the Yukon territory in the West, eastwards across the Northwest Territories and Nunavut to Baffin Island, and then down the Atlantic coast of Labrador!

Along with managing the 47 NWS radar sites on this defensive line, Nasittuq operates three logistics facilities in Ontario using 250 full-time employees —- 20% of whom are Inuit — along with a 35% part-time Inuit workforce. The entire operation supports and services 100-plus buildings, 300-plus bulk fuel storage tanks, and 47 helipads/gravel runways. Nasittuq provides helicopter transport between the NWS sites, while remotely monitoring and controlling from the NWS Support Centre located at CFB North Bay in Ontario. The company also handles bulk fuel deliveries and support of the diesel generators at the NWS sites — because there are no hydro lines up here that you can plug into — plus logistical support and supply delivery, and billeting/food services for the NWS’ onsite staff.

The North Warning System is just one example of ATCO Frontec’s longstanding defence contracting work in the Arctic. “We are a 49% partner with ASRC Federal Primus in operating the Alaska Radar System under the name ARCTEC Alaska,” Landon said. “It provides operational and maintenance services at 15 long range radar sites in support of NORAD.”

Nasittuq Corporation also runs Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert in Nunavut. CFS Alert is the most northern permanently inhabited settlement in the world. It is located on the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic, approximately 817 km from the geographic North Pole. CFB Alert is used by the Canadian Air Forces to collect SIGINT [Signals Intelligence] data, support an Environment Canada Weather Station, and assist in national and international Arctic science.

“As well, we look after the Forward Operating Locations from which the RCAF’s CF-18s fly in support of NORAD,” said Landon. “We also support the CAF’s Operation NANOOK, which is a readiness exercise staged in Canada’s Far North every year. In a non-defence capacity, we run virtually all of the services in Resolute Bay, Nunavut, including the hotels and port operations and support to other government agencies up there, among other civilian projects.”

INDIGENOUS ENGAGEMENT

            In addition to its extensive Arctic expertise, ATCO Frontec is profoundly committed to engagement with Canada’s Indigenous peoples. But this isn’t just talk, it’s action. To date, ATCO Frontec has signed more than 50 partnerships/relationship agreements with Inuit majority-owned companies and Indigenous communities across Canada. They include Nasittuq and Uqsuq Corporation, which manages Iqaliut’s bulk fuel system. “These partnerships started out 50/50,” Landon told CDR. “Now they’re 49/51 with our Inuit partners as majority shareholders, which they should be.”

            Thanks to its engagement with Canada’s Indigenous peoples since 1987, ATCO Frontec has been able to support real and positive social change in Northern Canadian communities. Landon himself has met many Indigenous people who started out as NWS apprentices, and who are now business and community leaders. “ATCO Frontec is making a real difference in Canada’s North,” he said. “Our people and our Inuit partners are truly nation building up here.”

NORAD MODERNIZATION

            Up to $11 billion is expected to be spent modernizing NORAD in upcoming years. Given ATCO Frontec’s decades of expertise in Northern defence work, it makes sense that they want a piece of this project.

            “We were just awarded the Polar over-the-horizon radar project with our Inuit-owned partner Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, and we have the capability to be a prime contractor for the Arctic over-the-horizon radar project,” said Landon. “These will fill the gaps that exist today in the existing NWS. As well, Canada’s purchase of CF-35 fighter jets will require upgrades at our Forward Operating Locations in the North, along with upgrades at CFB Cold Lake and other CF-35 bases. ATCO Frontec has the knowledge, people, and resources to do this work properly. If you then add the Northern Operational Support Hubs, which is a bit of an undefined requirement right now, ATCO Frontec is already sitting in some of the very obvious places where you might want to put those. And so again, we can provide the essential logistics support and any construction required for those in the future as well.”

             Put everything all together, and ATCO Frontec has what it takes to play a major role in NORAD Modernization, including serving as a prime contractor for the project. “Absolutely yes! I think we are very well embedded, very well experienced, and have a great track record of supporting the CAF and NORAD in the North,” Landon said. “In fact, whatever the Canadian military wants to do in the North, we stand ready and able to support them.”

James Careless is CDR’s Ottawa Bureau Chief