National Defence committee  I'm not aware of any.

National Defence committee  That's something the Canadian military may be able to tell you.

National Defence committee  I not aware of any flights.

National Defence committee  Well, I think yet again there seems to be some confusion. Why are you treating the Arctic differently from how you're treating the Gulf of St. Lawrence, or Labrador, or the west coast of Canada? The Canadian Arctic is Canadian. We have extended our economic zone out to 200 nautical miles, as we are allowed to under law.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, may I respond to--

National Defence committee  Ten seconds, absolutely. First of all, you have to get your lexicon right. Your lexicon is about claims. We don't claim anything; we own it. This is Canada. You keep talking about claims. Are you insinuating that we do not own this?

National Defence committee  This is Canada. It continues to be Canada. And I would be surprised if you, as members of Parliament and Canadians, would be implying that it isn't. I think you should be careful about your lexicon, I suggest to you, Mr. Chairman.

National Defence committee  I think there are two things being confused here. They do have the lead on the northern strategy, which is a whole-of-government effort. Someone was mentioning they hadn't seen the whole-of-government effort, and I can assure you, and certainly my colleagues can, that we've been at innumerable meetings where the whole-of-government effort has been there to look at our northern strategy with respect to...and I listed the four pillars of the northern strategy.

National Defence committee  I disagree entirely with you. We own--

National Defence committee  This has two parts, and I'm going to ask Paul Gibbard to give you a briefing on the Tromso conference. Then Vice-Admiral McFadden can speak right after.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are delighted to be here today, especially with you as chair. As you mentioned in the beginning, we are here with Mr. Hannaford and Mr. Gibbard. I've decided to do a bit of a slide show today, because I think it's very useful to see some of the key pictures we have, as well as get a sense of the Arctic from the top down.

Transport committee  I can't imagine it's going to impact on our legislation. We would carry out our legislation in any event. It seems that the Russians have taken a page out of our legislative handbook and are trying to emulate much of what we are doing. As I see this, what they have here is that these regulations--and many of them I see here I think were also adopted from 1990 through 1996--allow navigation in the Russian northern sea route on a non-discriminatory basis for ships of all states.

Transport committee  Thank you for that. Clearly, my caveat before I answer this question is that this is not really in the purview or the mandate of the Minister of Foreign Affairs; therefore, I would bow to other ministers and other departments. But in case it hasn't been answered--and I haven't seen all the transcripts from your discussion--certainly Mr.

Transport committee  If the oil spill happens in Canada, in the Canadian Arctic, surely. But if the oil spill happens in the Russian Arctic, it may be confined there. It will be in our interest, as states around the Arctic Ocean, to cooperate together to develop the methods to contain oil. In fact, this is part of the discussion that's going on, not only within the Arctic Council but in other organizations, such as the International Maritime Organization.

Transport committee  No. The AWPPA has been a law of Canada since 1970. So by definition, that has been in place. But if my colleagues from the Department of Transport haven't done it, I will run through this for you. For instance, for domestic vessels, enforcement largely consists of annual inspections for compliance with the AWPPA, and the issuance of a safety certificate is mandatory.