Liberal government dismisses calls for radar site to remain as farmland

Minister of National Defence David J. McGuinty rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Thursday, May 7, 2026.

OTTAWA — The federal government is rejecting calls from some residents in southern Ontario to find other spots to set up its planned Arctic over-the-horizon radar installations.

Parliament has received a flurry of petitions criticizing National Defence for buying up plots of quality farmland near Barrie, Ont., for the new radar sites, and calling on Ottawa to preserve the land.

The federal government bought land in Clearview Township for a receiver site, and acreage for a transmitter site in Kawartha Lakes, upsetting local residents.

A government response tabled in Parliament says the project has complex and “inflexible” requirements for things like latitude and the distance between installations, and it has been unable to find other sites that could serve.

The government says the long-range radar will make detecting threats in Arctic airspace faster and easier and is rejecting calls to register the property under an agricultural trust.

Even though it will monitor Arctic airspace, the installations themselves must be built south of the 46th parallel and south of the Trans-Canada Highway.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2026.

The Canadian Press