National Defence Committee on May 13th, 2014

[LGen Stuart Beare]

The mechanisms are the headquarters, the sensor systems, and the networks of people who collect and analyze the information and transmit it to their partners.

Every morning, when I get an operational update at my operations centre, there are 23 networks informing my domain awareness. The folks who run those networks—and there are many—are both civilian and military, national and bilateral.

The other thing that is working very well is the provisions for the pre-planned military support to civilian authorities for natural disaster, man-made disaster, or other contingencies.

Planning matters. Some people think we do it just to keep ourselves entertained. Actually, that's not true; it's hard work—

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

That is the process for coordinating the planning with the U.S.

[LGen Stuart Beare]

—with our partners. From the Canada-U.S. perspective, military to military we have a high degree of coordinated planning capabilities. Our connection to our civilian authorities—national and state in the U.S., national and federal-territorial in Canada—is very high. It's routine. Again, it's something you want to be good at before the crisis manifests itself.

Our interoperability military to military is exceptional. Interoperability is not just technology and equipment; it's ways of seeing problems, ways of solving problems, ways of working together as people. Those are working very well.

The things that we continue to improve on are practising the plans and testing the interoperability of people and not just of equipment and technology. This is something we continue to pursue with our American partners. For that, training and exercises are the vehicles we use; they precede the actual problem itself.

We do that at my level, we do it at the regional level. The people who are really doing this.... I have six regional joint task forces in Canada: Joint Task Force North and from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and they have relationships north-south that they practise with our U.S. partners or—

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

But there are other levels at which you need more of that practise happening.

[LGen Stuart Beare]

They are continuing to advance that.

Then, the other domain that we need to continue to clearly work on is to understand, beyond the military cyber domain, the national critical infrastructure domain and how civil authorities see that domain being challenged and how we might be postured in preparing to respond to it, should that be required. That's a continuing work in progress.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

What would be the biggest challenge in terms of this cooperating with the United States on cyber security, especially when it comes down to protecting or defending or preventing attacks on critical infrastructure? What's in the way?

[LGen Stuart Beare]

Defending our network infrastructure is uniquely our responsibility, and we have a very good relationship with the U.S. Cyber Command on that.

As it relates to infrastructure beyond what belongs to us, it really belongs to other authorities, and they would need to speak to that. I know that CSEC and others are thoroughly on that mandate.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

In terms of how you see the responsibility of your role as the joint deployment organization, given that the defence of the country includes attacks not just on the military but on civilians or civilian infrastructure, how do you take action on this responsibility, which National Defence has, so that we don't have critical infrastructure disabled, even if it belongs to Ontario Hydro or...?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Norlock]

That response will have to wait, General, to a response in writing. I've given you a note, so I'll give you time to digest it.

My question has been asked of several witnesses on this subject prior to or at the end of their testimony. It basically is about what I think is a very needed piece of equipment in Canada's armed forces, in particular, in the air force, and that is the F-35.

The other witnesses were asked to look at the F-35 and the possible purchase of other aircraft and to be able to tell us the benefits to Canada from an economic perspective. I am most interested, in particular, in interoperability with our friends and allies in NATO and those who belong to the consortium, and how that aircraft or others would be able to respond to interoperability and some other crises or operations that we may find ourselves in the future. So those witnesses were asked to get back to me as chair in writing, and I will do the same with you.

General, I just have to say that you and I talked before the meeting, including about my earlier occupation. I don't know if you want to talk about your future, but I left you a question. Because you have held very senior commands and this might be your swan song before the committee today before retiring, my question has to do with your experience during your career. Have you seen any improvements in the way our Canadian Armed Forces acts for the dominion of Canada, and in particular, in meeting our responsibilities to the rest of the world.

General, the floor is yours for a few minutes.

[LGen Stuart Beare]

Chair, did you say I have one hour?

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Norlock]

The chair is going to cut you off in about three minutes.

[LGen Stuart Beare]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for the opportunity. I would offer these observations after 36 years of wearing our uniform.

The environment in which Canada's men and women in uniform have served during my time of service has included the Cold War and the degree of pseudo-predictability that it provided, notwithstanding the fact I was glad like everybody else to see it end. Then we lived through and discovered the new realities of a post-Cold War world where the peace dividend and tranquility did not manifest themselves, but new forms of challenges, be they international or national, started to emerge and we ventured into learning how to deal with those. I'm a blue beret and a green-helmet wearer from the Balkans experience.

So I know how the world has changed and how we had to change with it to the post-9/11 world where a new paradigm of threats to the homeland turned into a form of reality that we have since responded to with partners, including the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring has created a definite no-same-as-last-year reality in the international peace and security arena, and now there is the new challenge of a major state acting in Ukraine and in the Crimea in a way that is no less a significant worry for many. All of that, of course, is going on concurrently with other challenges.

So I've seen us through all of these different security environments. Throughout all of that I've been in a profession that has, without fail, responded and fought when called upon, as well as delivered on being prepared the best we can with the tools we had, to be effective in that response. I couldn't have been happier to sling a sandbag in Winnipeg or to fight an ice storm in eastern Ontario during a challenging decade—and I won't use any terminology for that decade. It was a very challenging decade for our profession and Canada's perception of its military during that period. We served Canadians selflessly and became more known to our fellow citizens.

I have to say that since we embarked on the decade-plus experience in the Afghan mission, in which we delivered on our commitment—and thank you, again, for Friday last week—I've discovered some things. One is that I perceive a greater consciousness and understanding among Canadians of the dynamic, changing world we live in, where threats and risks are very real. It's useful to know how good we have it in a role that's this challenged, and to know that challenges really do exist out there.

I believe Canadians are conscious of the fact they have security organizations, law enforcement and others, and a military that are prepared to respond to those challenges home and away. I see it on the street every time I get thanked for my service, and there's an ownership of our military in this last decade by citizens that I didn't see in the 1990s. I couldn't be happier to see it today, notwithstanding that the security challenges are real and there are wicked problems out there to be confronted. Our stock in the world is first class. I can say this having served in military—maritime, air, and land. It's not limited to or fully enabled by their platforms alone, but it's about the people who wear the uniform who really are the strength of our force. We've got great people.

If I could leave you with a last thought, it is that I'm proud to have served and I'll continue to serve through my family's next generation who are in uniform today, a daughter full-time and two sons part-time. They didn't pick it because Dad told them to, just for the record. They're proud Canadians, proud to serve, and they're thrilled by how they're respected and admired by their fellow Canadians in or out of uniform.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Norlock]

Thank you very much, General, and may your retirement hold all that you hope it does.

This committee is adjourned.