CFS Alert Canadian Forces Station Alert , also CFS Alert , is a Canadian Forces signals intelligence intercept facility located in Alert , Nunavut on the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island . Located in the Qikiqtaaluk Region , Nunavut , Canada , it is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world . It takes its name from HMS " Alert " , which wintered east of the present station off what is now Cape Sheridan , Nunavut in 1875 - 1876 . Motto : Crest : Weather Station . Alert ( then part of the Northwest Territories ) was first inhabited by employees of the Canadian Department of Transport and the United States Weather Bureau in 1950 when the Joint Arctic Weather Station ( JAWS ) was established . An airfield and small building were built to service various weather monitoring equipment . This weather station remains in operation to this day , however operations were subsequently handed over to employees of the Canadian Department of the Environment via the Meteorological Service of Canada . In April 1971 a party of federal and NWT government officials were in Alert trying to reach the North Pole . The Alert Station had been the embarkation points for many North Pole expeditions that relied on weather information supplied by JAWS . The 1971 expedition was led by NWT Commissioner Stuart Hodgson and included in his party were representatives of the Prime Minister ' s office , the Canadian Armed Forces , the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development as well as a large media group including Pat Carney of Gemini Productions , Ed Ogle of Time Magazine , Val Wake of CBC News and a Californian television crew . While waiting in Alert for a weather window to fly into the Pole the party ' s television crew spent a lot of time filming at the weather station . The military was not too happy about the film crew working on the station but the JAWS site was seen as being a sort of no - man ' s land . The Commissioner ' s party made two attempts to reach the Pole and failed . Some of the incidents surrounding this event are recounted in Val Wake ' s memoir My Voyage around Spray with Apologies to Captain Joshua Slocum . Alert Wireless Station . The Canadian military was interested in the establishment of JAWS at Alert for several reasons . The JAWS facility extended Canadian sovereignty over a large uninhabited area which Canada claimed as its sovereign territory . During the Cold War , Alert was strategically important because of its proximity to the Soviet Union ; Alert was the closest point in North America to the northwestern area of the Soviet Union . In fact , Alert is closer to Moscow ( c . 2 , 500 mi . ) than it is to Ottawa ( c . 2 , 580 mi . ) . Thus , the possibility of utilizing the site for the purpose of intercepting radio signals was deemed to warrant a military presence . In 1956 , the Royal Canadian Air Force ( RCAF ) , which was expanding its presence throughout the high Arctic with the construction of the Distant Early Warning Line radar network , established a building uphill from the DOT ' s JAWS station to house " High Arctic Long Range Communications Research " , or signals intelligence operations . In 1957 , the Alert Wireless Station was conceived as an intercept facility to be jointly staffed by personnel from the Royal Canadian Navy and the RCAF . Five additional buildings were constructed : a mess , 3 barracks / accommodations buildings , and a power house and vehicle maintenance building , in addition to the existing operations building , built in 1956 . The operations building housed the radio intercept and cryptographic equipment . Up to 24 men would be posted to Alert at any one time . Alert was considered ( and remains to this day ) a hardship assignment , with no spouses being permitted . Until 1980 only men were permitted to deploy to Alert . The February 1 , 1968 unification of the RCN , RCAF and Canadian Army to form the Canadian Forces saw the Alert Wireless Station change its name to Canadian Forces Station Alert ( CFS Alert ) . Its personnel were no longer drawn from only the air force or navy , but primarily from the Canadian Forces Communications Command . At its peak , CFS Alert had upwards of 215 personnel posted at any one time . The station became a key asset in the global ECHELON network of the US - UK - ANZAC intelligence sharing alliance , with Alert being privy to many secret Soviet communications regarding land - based and sea - based ICBM test launches and many operational military deployments . Budget cuts to the Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces in 1994 , and modernization of communications equipment , saw CFS Alert downsized to approximately 74 personnel by 1997 - 1998 when most radio - intercept operations were remotely controlled by personnel at CFS Leitrim . Remaining personnel are responsible for airfield operations , construction / engineering , food service , and logistical / administrative support . Only six personnel are now responsible for actual operations and control of the facility was passed to DND ' s Information Management Group following the disbanding of CF Communications Command with force restructuring and cutbacks in the mid - 1990s . Several of these personnel are likely also attached to DND ' s Communications Security Establishment . With Canada ' s commitment to the global war on terrorism following the September 11 , 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington , DC , CFS Alert has received renewed and increased funding to expand its SIGINT capabilities . However , as of April 13 , 2006 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was reporting that the heating costs for the station had risen , in consequence of which the military were proposing to cut back on support trade positions by using private contractors . Air Command officially took responsibility for CFS Alert from Canadian Forces Information Operations Group ( CFIOG ) 1 April 2009 . " The numbers of personnel in Alert continues to dwindle and most of the support staff will eventually be contracted . In order to ensure that the artifacts in Alert that are deemed " museum pieces " are handled appropriately , a team of two will be flown to Alert to accession the surviving artifacts . " Aircraft crashes . The military has constructed several roads in the area to permit patrolling , as well as for logistics purposes from shore locations near anchorages east of the station , as well as to the airfield . Since Alert has not been accessible by icebreakers due to the very heavy ice conditions in the Lincoln Sea , resupply is provided by the Royal Canadian Air Force transport aircraft which land at the adjacent airfield . Alert gets no sunshine from October 14 to March 1 every year , and doesn ' t get light at all for much of that time . Its weather conditions and isolation provide a significant challenge to pilots . This has led to some well - known crashes : Climate . Alert has a polar climate . This means it is cold most of the year and , on average , has snow cover for 10 months of the year . The warmest month , July , has an average temperature of just . The climate type also means that Alert is very dry , averaging only of precipitation per year . Most of the precipitation is snow and occurs during the months of July , August and September . On average there is of rain which occurs between June and September . Alert sees very little snowfall during the rest of the year . September is usually the month with the heaviest snowfall . February is the coldest month of the year . Snowfall can occur during any month of the year . Alert experiences polar night from the middle of October , with twilight lasting until the end of the month , until the end of February , with twilight starting about the middle of the month . From the first week of April until the first week of September Alert sees the midnight sun . Sports . In early April 2006 the Roly McLenahan Torch that was used to light the flame at Whitehorse , Yukon for the Canada Winter Games passed through Alert . While the Canada Games torch was supposed to pass over the North Pole , bad weather prevented a Canadian military Twin Otter from making the trip . The torch did not travel outside Alert that weekend ( April 9 – 12 ) . On November 8 , 2009 , the 2010 Winter Olympics Torch Relay arrived at Alert via airplane from Thompson , Manitoba , reaching its most northerly point on land . The next day it travelled to Iqaluit . References . Information about the 1971 Canadian North Pole expedition supplied by Val Wake .