National Defence committee  We rely on data provided by international partners.

National Defence committee  With DRDC, under a memorandum of understanding between the Canadian Space Agency and the Department of National Defence, we have a so-called accord committee, which coordinates research and development for civil and defence purposes.

National Defence committee  The Department of National Defence is responsible for protection. We are coordinating our planning activities with them.

National Defence committee  If I can add to that very briefly, we also work with the UN COPUOS with other nations on developing international guidelines and rules of good behaviour. As well, we are part of the inter-agency debris mitigation committee, where we are working with other nations. By the way, Russia and China are part of that committee.

National Defence committee  It's civil space. We are responsible for the coordination and acquisition of assets for civil space Canadian programs.

National Defence committee  It's a very good question. The Canadian Space Agency is responsible. We received funding in 2023 for the RADARSAT+ program Maja Djukic mentioned in the introductory remarks and we are implementing the RADARSAT+ program. Nevertheless, there is a program that the Department of National Defence would be better positioned to talk about.

National Defence committee  Currently, again, as we mentioned in the introduction, the RADARSAT Constellation Mission is one of those. RADARSAT-2 is another one. As well, we're working with the Department of National Defence and their research arm, DRDC, on two micro-satellites. One of them, NEOSSat, is still being operated by the CSA.

National Defence committee  We don't have close partnership or collaboration with China. We are focusing on work with our allies and partners.

National Defence committee  As you are probably aware, there are several commercial entities in Canada that are trying to establish commercial launch capabilities in Canada. It falls under the mandate of Department of Transport. We are providing expert support to the Department of Transport related to launch activities, but they would be better positioned to answer to those questions.

National Defence committee  I would not speculate on behalf of commercial entities, but there are very solid cases in Canada that have good chances for success.

National Defence committee  Being a Canadian space agency, we are concerned more with making sure that we are not denied those capabilities in space. That means resilience. That means building partnerships that can supplement our assets. Replacing space capability with other capabilities falls within the responsibilities of other government departments with which we are working very closely, and they would be better positioned to answer that question.

National Defence committee  I think we are already a leader. We are just finishing our leadership of this organization. This organization's leadership is rotated every six months. We are just finishing our six months of leading this organization with EUMETSAT, the European meteorological agency. I believe our reputation within the organization is very high.

National Defence committee  We are very proud of the fact that Canada was one of the founding members of the international charter on space and major disasters. That organization recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Today it brings together 17 international agencies. Canada, the European Space Agency and the French space agency were founding members of this organization.

National Defence committee  No. It's anywhere in the world.

National Defence committee  That is absolutely correct.