At the end of the pier at the Nanisivik Naval Facility sit three unused jetties.

Ice smothers the remote base for most of the year, encasing its empty helipad, site office and diesel tanks, then melting away as the seasons pass.

When it was commissioned in 2007, Nanisivik was meant to signal Canada’s commitment to protecting its Arctic territories.

But cost overruns and design changes have seen the opening pushed back from 2015, to 2018, to 2020, then 2024 – and, now, an unknown date in the future.

Today the silent base on Baffin Island serves as a reminder of Canada’s unprotected borders, the product of decades of underinvestment in its military.

Predators scent blood. In the past year, Russia and China have edged their way further into the Arctic, attracted by the shiver of a weak flank in the Nato security alliance.