The situation in the Arctic has not improved from the year 2000, when I was commander of the northern area.
We still have a navy that has no capability to operate all year round in our three oceans. The air force hasn't really increased its capability in terms of the long-range maritime patrol aircraft. We still don't have drones that have been considered. Radarsat-2 is not operational yet. Radarsat-1 doesn't have the resolution to be able to monitor activity in the north.
If you look north of 60 degrees and you count the number of federal officials—armed forces, the RCMP—tasked with federal issues, the total number will be less than 300 people to cover an area the size of continental Europe. It's a huge area to cover. The number of ranger patrols that we have in the contested area is only 12, and these rangers are now spending less time on the land than when I was there, principally because, from an economic point of view, the north has started to be developed, and many people are employed in mining operations—diamond mines, diamond exploration, and exploration for other goods. All this is to say that the situation has not improved.
Radarsat-2 is going to finally provide Canada with the capability to do monitoring of a very large space, very cost-effectively. Then, once we do spot that there is something untoward taking place in the north, such as one of these rust-buckets from Asia trying to transit through the Northwest Passage, we can take action to prevent that ship from going through. But in the first instance, we need to know what's going on, and right now we don't.