The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has warned Inuit leaders that foreign adversaries could gain a foothold in Canada by offering to fill infrastructure gaps in the North, writes CBC.

However, the President of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) — an organization representing more than 65,000 Inuits — said the agency's inability to share classified intelligence with the region's decision-makers leaves them in the dark about the risks.

"We are making decisions daily that are currently not as informed as they could be about threats and considerations," Obed recently told CBC News.

Internal CSIS documents obtained by CBC News show that the agency is trying to grow its presence in the North and deepen its relationship with Inuit communities in response to "economic, strategic and military interests of foreign states in the North."

Casey Babb, an international fellow with the Glazer Center for Israel-China Policy and instructor at the Carleton University in Ottawa, points to China as an example and says, "They use foreign investment as a door, as an entry point, to gain access to markets, to gain access to government, to investors as well."