Prime Minister Trudeau to visit 4 Wing Cold Lake with Secretary General of NATO

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be making a stop in the Lakeland on Friday.

Trudeau, along with the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, will be visiting 4 Wing Cold Lake on Friday as they make a tour around western and northern Canada, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s office. 

Discussions will be based on Canada’s contributions to NATO, the nation’s partnership in NORAD, and the recently announced plan to modernize continental defence, including $38.6 billion over the next twenty years to bolster NATO’s western and northern flank.

They will meet with CAF personnel plus hold a bilateral meeting to advance shared priorities, said the statement, including climate action, Canada’s ongoing commitment to NATO, the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, and the NATO Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence, which is being established in Montreal.

“I look forward to welcoming Secretary General Stoltenberg back to Canada, where we will advance action on critical issues for Canada and the Alliance, ranging from international security to climate change and its impacts,” said Trudeau in a statement. “Together, we will continue working closely with Allies and partners to address today’s threats and security challenges, defend our values and way of life, and reinforce the rules-based international system now and into the future.”

The tour will make stops in Edmonton on Wednesday and Nunavut on Thursday.

The federal government is working through a proposed plan to renew infrastructure at CFB Cold Lake as part of the Future Fighter Project.

According to federal documents, this phase would consist of the demolition of Hangar 6 to provide a footprint for the construction of New Fighter Squadron Facility and all related infrastructure for the new future fighter airframe. The new facility would be roughly three times the size of the existing hangar.

In March 2021, the Department of National Defence determined that the project would not have sizeable environmental impact.

The Secretary General last visited Canada in July 2019.