U.S. ambassador says he's confident Canada will strengthen its defences in the Arctic

America's top diplomat in Ottawa says he's been assured Canada will follow through this year on crucial investments to modernize its Arctic defence, even though this month's budget didn't include money for that work.

Ambassador David Cohen told CBC's The House in an interview airing this weekend that Canada needs to make Arctic air and maritime defence a national priority. He said he's made that point in "candid conversations" with senior cabinet ministers since he took up the post in December.

"So I think there's an acknowledgement that this budget does not include funding for NORAD, for modernizing and improving the northern defence for Canada and for the United States, but that it will be forthcoming during the course of this fiscal year," he said.

The United States has complained for a very long time that Canada hasn't been living up to its NATO commitment to boost its military spending to two per cent of national GDP. Barack Obama raised it during his speech to Parliament in 2016. Donald Trump took up the refrain even more assertively during his time in the White House.

Cohen isn't a career diplomat or politician. He is, on the other hand, a successful business executive and lobbyist, a man described by the Washington Post a decade ago as a policy wonk with extensive Beltway contacts and an ability to distil complex issues.

Those are also useful skills in Ottawa — where politicians pay far more attention to what goes on south of the border than their American counterparts display when it comes to Canadian politics.

But North American security is one subject the U.S. cared about deeply long before Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, and long before China began asserting itself as a polar power with a claim to the Arctic's resources.

Cohen acknowledged during the interview at the U.S. embassy that the budget did include another $8 billion in defence spending. But he said Russia and China's increasing activity in the North must be countered by a more robust Canadian presence at the top of the world.

"The United States has been told, I have been told and other officials in the White House and in Washington have been told that when we discussed the $8 billion increase in defence spending, (we've) been told that, remember, that doesn't even include anything for NORAD modernization," he said. "That will be an add-on as we continue to review what NORAD requires."

Liberal MP John McKay estimates the cost of modernizing NORAD could run to billions of dollars.

McKay, chair of the Commons defence committee, has been a vocal critic of Canada's failure to respond to Russia's growing military presence in the Arctic. He told CBC News that Russia has built or refurbished 11 bases across the region, while Canada has only one base in Alert.

"There is an absolute necessity for the government of Canada to be alive to the military needs of the Arctic," he said when asked for his reaction to Cohen's comments.

"We have underestimated, continuously underestimated, Putin's willingness to engage in a military fashion over the last number of years. And we cannot afford that risk."

But the prime minister has been unclear about Canada's position. Justin Trudeau told reporters this week that security is only one part of his government's focus in the North. Addressing climate change and promoting economic opportunities for the Inuit are equally important, he said.