Today’s theme is icebreakers – a special type of ship that’s designed to navigate ice covered waters and help guide other ships safely through. In the Arctic that’s an important and expensive task, and one that’s changing in nature as the climate crisis accelerates. In past decades, Canada was a leader in icebreaker technology and creation, but a new strategy is now required to regain that prestige on the world stage.

Spencer Fraser knows icebreakers as well as anyone in Canada. He’s the former Chief Executive Officer of Federal Fleet Services, with 20 years of experience in the Royal Canadian Navy, and  spent 11 years as the president of Meggitt Training Systems Canada, a recognized world leader in naval training. He now works as the director of business development for the Inocea Group, which owns the Davie Shipyard in Quebec, the location of a recently announced Arctic Icebreaking Research Centre. Today we talked about the significance of this new centre, as well as the importance of icebreakers to Canada’s sovereignty, economy, and promise as a future Northern leader.

For more on the Davie Icebreaker centre: https://icebreakercentre.ca/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-I-Iqpyb6wIVnu7jBx285w4nEAAYASAAEgLQ2PD_BwE#main-top