National Defence Committee on Nov. 20th, 2014

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Nadia Bouffard]

All right, I'll try, and hopefully Greg will help me out.

Let me start with your last question, very quickly. We are not procurement experts, so we'll try to respond and if we can get back to you with details, we will.

[Robert Chisholm, NDP, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Thank you.

[Nadia Bouffard]

I'm going to let Greg speak about the marine security working group, and I will jump very quickly to the Canada-U.S. relations. I think that's going to answer some of your questions.

Our relationship with the U.S. and the U.S. Coast Guard in conducting our mandate is very close and collaborative and very productive, whether it's in the north or anywhere else, whether it's environmental responses or security. This is demonstrated through a number of groups, meetings, treaties, agreements, and MOUs we have with the U.S. I could give you a couple of examples, but given the time, I won't get into those examples. Suffice it to say that we have a long-standing relationship with the U.S. Coast Guard. We meet regularly and we pick up the phone regularly from Ottawa to the regions. On operations, we work very closely together. There is no difficulty in that relationship. You have to have those kinds of relationships in operations, close relationships.

You asked why 300 tonnes and what happens with the balance of vessels that are smaller. I believe the rule that originally created the limit at 300 gross tonnage came from the International Maritime Organization, and its role and mandate was really focused on safety and risks associated with the safety of mariners and environmental protection.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

We're out of time.

You may, Mr. Chisholm, wish to follow up on answers to your other questions in your next slot.

[Robert Chisholm, NDP, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

She can just provide that in writing.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Well, we can do it in writing or whatever.

But for now, go ahead, Mr. Norlock, please.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for attending today.

Since we are studying the defence of North America, how closely and in what areas does the Canadian Coast Guard cooperate with the Canadian Armed Forces with respect to the defence of North America?

[Nadia Bouffard]

Here's another example of a very close seamless relationship with the Canadian Armed Forces. We of course have a very close relationship, a partner relationship, with them on search and rescue. I co-chair a SAR committee with Major-General Coates. We do operations in support of them and in collaboration with them.

Maybe you could give the details, Greg, in terms of some of the stuff we do with them.

[Gregory Lick]

I think I would add to what Madame Bouffard has said. Certainly in the search and rescue area, our key area where we actually work together is in the joint rescue coordination centres in Halifax, Trenton, and Victoria, where we are actually co-located with Canadian Armed Forces personnel and manage the SAR system from there and all the taskings from there. That's one of the critical areas for search and rescue and our ability to respond effectively to search and rescue.

I think the other area I would note would be the exercising we do, both in the north and around the country. We do numerous exercises with the Canadian Armed Forces, primarily in the search and rescue area, which is our top mandate or top priority. We also do maritime security exercises as well. That usually involves helicopter support with the Canadian Armed Forces, our vessels, and various emergency response teams, which would be primarily from the RCMP, but we all work together in responding to or interdicting certain vessels that we may become aware of through our maritime domain awareness.

Those are the primary areas where I would say we concentrate our efforts in terms of cooperation.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Thank you very much.

Since we're talking about that area, the marine security enforcement team program is a joint RCMP and Canadian Coast Guard project. As you mentioned, that was established in 2005, and it enhances marine security in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence area, in particular. Can you tell me what sort of interdictions this enforcement team would be targeting? Are there security threats to Canada that MSET would be confronting? Then, what kind of resources and assets does the Coast Guard have to meet that responsibility?

[Nadia Bouffard]

With regard to the assets, we spoke in our opening statement about the renewed vessels going into the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes, with greater capacity to support our partners, such as the RCMP.

I'm not sure about the first question with respect to the specifics of MSET's security role.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

I know they have a specific job.

[Nadia Bouffard]

Yes.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

You, along with the RCMP, are targeting certain entities or certain threats on the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence. I'm asking you about the kinds of threats you have encountered since 2005, some of the operations you've been in, and some of the successes, or challenges for that matter.

[Nadia Bouffard]

Do you want to try that?

[Gregory Lick]

Yes.

Without getting into the details of all the actual interdictions that have occurred, I would say that most of the interdictions with personnel, vessels on the water, and so on, have primarily been around Criminal Code actions. I certainly don't have all the details of those types of interdictions, but they've primarily been around the Criminal Code.

Those could be anything from something as simple as alcohol on boats up to something like smuggling or anything like that. Some of the incidents have occurred and are out in the public domain, such as incidents of smuggling in the Cornwall area.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

You're referring to illegal and illicit cigarettes, right?

[Gregory Lick]

It could be something like that. Certainly smuggling is something—

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Don't be afraid to say what it is; I think we all read the newspapers.

The other thing, of course—and this leads to a previous question—is that we know that many of the firearms used in Canada illegally are exported from the United States into Canada. “Smuggled” is the right word to use. I'm wondering if that forms part of the MSET duty.

[Nadia Bouffard]

I don't know. But I would say that with respect to specific interdictions and enforcement regarding those interdictions, really the RCMP would be the better organization to pose those specific questions to. They would have the answers.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Thank you.

Some of the areas that have been previously.... You talked about the new assets you have that permit you to do your job much better. We do have the longest coastline in the world, and we have one of the smallest populations. I guess my kudos would be that we do a darn good job of protecting those people who utilize the coastline for everything from commercial to pleasure to other occupations.

Since we are talking about the defence of North America, I just wonder what kind of interoperability you have with the Canadian Armed Forces, the RCMP, and other entities that are meant to keep us safe, and also with the U.S. entities of the same sorts.

[Nadia Bouffard]

Those are all good questions.

[Gregory Lick]

With respect to interoperability.... We can take them one at a time, but they all have very similar themes in terms of what we're working on.

I would say that one of the best examples with respect to the Canadian Armed Forces in terms of interoperability is one of the systems that is part of a project we're actually in the middle of developing and installing on board both the Canadian Coast Guard, particularly the larger vessels, and some of the Royal Canadian Navy vessels, termed IMIC3.

It provides an unclassified view for those particular vessels as well as certain operation centres in both the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Coast Guard. It provides that national maritime picture of what's out there, in an unclassified format, so that both the ships and the shore side can actually see. That is providing, as we complete the project, a better sense from both the navy and ourselves so that we both have that common understanding, that common picture of what's out there that could be a threat.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

That's all of your time.

Ms. Murray, go ahead for seven minutes, please.