National Defence committee  Canada and the U.S. have always seen our border differently. That's why you speak to immigration officers going into the U.S. and they ask who you are and where you're going, and in Canada they're customs officers and they ask where you have been and what you are declaring. NOR

National Defence committee  Well, I'm still of the opinion that the dots do not connect that way. There was great promise of having more integration between the ports of Murmansk and Churchill as a way to get out of the grain surplus problem that we had this summer in Winnipeg, because it was an outlet to g

National Defence committee  If we're talking about the defence of North America, the elephant in the room is Mexico and at what point Mexico needs to be included in NORAD. This is something that Canada traditionally has not wanted to have happen, although Mexico does have liaison officers at USNORTHCOM. Bu

National Defence committee  Absolutely, but I'm just saying that logically, if we agree that the defence of all of North America is important, at some point we do have to consider the role that Mexico plays. We can't keep discounting them out of hand because traditionally we didn't want to be associated wit

National Defence committee  My apologies for that. I missed a little of the conversation, but I'm guessing that what you are asking is if we should have jet fighters pre-deployed further north. I'm guessing that it was the direction of the comments and—

National Defence committee  Well, we have a number of systems up there tracking various movements. We have the NORDREG traffic vessel system. We have RADARSAT-2, and we're hoping it has further capabilities in the near future. We also have the north warning system. So we actually have quite a few mechanisms

National Defence committee  When it comes to the RCMP, they're sort of in onesies and twosies throughout the Arctic. They have been for decades, and they still are. Increasingly they're dealing with not just constabulary issues but also social issues, because there's a lack of other services being offered i

National Defence committee  Well, I think one of the things the Cold War taught us is the incredible pacifying force of commerce, if done properly, and this is where the focus of the Canadian chairship of the Arctic Council on economic opportunities for northern communities is really important. Russia fee

National Defence committee  We have Joint Task Force North, which is based in Yellowknife, and we have the Rangers program. So we do have military presence in the Arctic, but arguably, again, it's not military threats we're faced with in the Arctic, it's really safety and security issues, which are often be

National Defence committee  The way the binational agreement is struck is that Canada and the U.S. jointly defend North America, so if for some reason Russia did try to attack the Canadian Arctic, then absolutely the U.S. would be there to assist, because that's always been the pledge. But I don't see that

National Defence committee  No, that's a managed disagreement. It's been a long-standing disagreement. Canada and the U.S. tend not to punish each other for concerns in one area through another. For example, when the U.S. and Canada have disputes about softwood lumber, it doesn't mean that in NORAD the U.S.

National Defence committee  I agree with Jim. There are so many threats that are common to Canada, Russia, and the U.S. There's ISIL. There's North Korea. There are all sorts of threats like this, and we need Russia, being a Permanent Five member on the UN Security Council: the more we can do with them and

National Defence committee  Right now, NORAD would be involved if, for example, they used a jet to crash into one of the major electrical nodes. That's when NORAD would get involved. NORAD right now doesn't have that sort of land mission warning, and I'm guessing that's probably how an attack on an electric

National Defence committee  The Arctic is in many ways slightly insulated, and this is one of these rare regional organizations where cooperation has been key. In fact, it was the Russians who wanted some sort of arrangement like the Arctic Council to govern relations in the Arctic, in recognition of the fa

National Defence committee  If there has been an attack on military assets, we're not going to know about it, because that's going to be classified, but for instance, now that NORAD has maritime warning, we are talking about other than military assets feeding in pictures, for instance, a recognized maritime