National Defence Committee on May 13th, 2014

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Do we share with our partners, like the United States, for example, any satellite imaging or satellite communication that's within our cooperation, that is, our defence of North America cooperation?

[BGen G.D. Loos]

Absolutely. We share on many different levels—strategic, operational, and tactical. So, I'm sharing out to the flanks, with folks in both Greenland and in Joint Task Force Alaska, at my level. At the operational level, for Joint Operations Command, they have networks that draw on some of those other information sources and bring them together to create a fused picture.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

What about at the submarine level, where I understand we don't have that capability? Do we the ability to request for that below the ocean?

[LGen Stuart Beare]

Ah, okay.

Well, I'd say two things. One is just to return to the blackout nodes. The places where we're not blacked out is where people are, so I wouldn't want to leave you with the perception that we have blackout nodes right over top of where our citizens are. That's not the case. It's the unpopulated, vast spaces where we're prepared to accept a degree of blackout noding, which our safety and security interests there may be able to anticipate.

That said, the subsurface is a highly compartmentalized discussion, and we have great confidence that we're sharing what we have with our own subsurface fleet, which has been deployed in operations recently to include a joint inter-agency task force south, in the Pacific waters around Central America, just before Christmas. That submarine put us into an operating environment which required full exposure of the subsurface picture that we understand.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Norlock]

Thank you very much—

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you, sir.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Norlock]

—Mr. Leung and General, and now we have Ms. Murray for seven minutes.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thank you very much for being here, and I also want to wish you all the best in your retirement and thank you for your service to Canadians.

[LGen Stuart Beare]

Thank you.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

I have three questions.

Before I go to them, I just want to ask you about the sentence on the top of page 2, where you say “While the home front is our core mission, the continental game is no less important.” I'm trying to understand if there is priority-setting in the Canadian Armed Forces. By “core mission”, does that mean that takes priority? So, if you have to weigh, and there are constrained resources and there's a need on both fronts, is the home front the priority, or is it equal?

[LGen Stuart Beare]

I'd say, very simply, that the absolute responsibility for defence safety and security through military means at home is our unique responsibility. We have to satisfy that.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

So that would be your priority, given a challenge in putting resources in two places.

[LGen Stuart Beare]

Our defence of the continent is a partnership with U.S. Northern Command and Canada-U.S. NORAD.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

In terms of international, the home front in Canada is the priority over deployment overseas.

[LGen Stuart Beare]

You bet.

If you could, if you recall the G8, G20, and Olympics of the 2010 era, notwithstanding our incredible international contributions at the time, there was no limit to how we would use our military to deliver the safety and security around the Olympics, G8, and G20, for example.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

I understand, and this ties into other testimony we've had that the choice of replacement for CF-18s should take into account what the priority is. If the priority is Canada, with its large spaces and long-range needs, then that may be a different statement of requirements than if the priority is deployment overseas.

Thank you for that.

So, are special forces in your command, as well? They're not listed in our briefing note as specifically under your command.

[LGen Stuart Beare]

No. There are three operational commands that serve the defence mission under the chief, NORAD, CJOC, and special forces command. From time to time, special forces operators will be put under my operational command or control for specific missions.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Okay. Well, then, could you confirm that the special operation forces will be deploying to Nigeria, and if so, when and for how long?

[LGen Stuart Beare]

No, I can't confirm that.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Okay.

[LGen Stuart Beare]

But I can tell you they served under my predecessor command, Expeditionary Force Command, in Afghanistan in the training mission, for example, and in Kandahar and combative operations, for example.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Are you able to share information as to whether Nigeria is agreeable to a deployment of troops on the ground from Canada?

[LGen Stuart Beare]

No, I can't speak to that.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

All right. I'll go to two other questions that I have.

I wanted to follow up with the question about naval capacity on the Pacific Ocean. I'm from the west coast. I understand that the lone tanker in the fleet is disabled and probably will not be put back into commission. What joint, continental, or even international exercises have been affected by the lack of a supply ship?

[LGen Stuart Beare]

Thank you for the question. The answer is, at this stage, everything we do to deliver on our safety and security mission is being done. It has not been adversely affected by that specific capability. Our participation in the rehearsals for contingencies like the rim of the Pacific exercise, for example, this summer, which is where we actually practise our contribution to international missions with our international partners, has not been adversely affected either. So we're able to deliver on the things we need to get out of, training our soldiers, sailors, and airmen to be ready for the next contingency, and we're also being a very relevant contributor to an international activity with great capabilities in the air, at sea, and on the land.