Members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for inviting me here today on the topic of Canada-U.S. relations.
I'd like to focus today on two areas that are emerging as priorities for the Obama administration that offer Canada the opportunity to pursue our national interests through a more secure world. The first is enhancing space security; the second, supporting nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.
Let's begin with space.
Canadians were reminded about the value of the government's investments in space when we were faced with the prospect of the sale of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates' space division last year, including the remote sensing satellite RADARSAT-2 and all the intellectual property associated with it. It was a galvanizing moment when public opposition to the $1.3 billion sale to a U.S. defence firm arose quite unexpectedly. To great applause, then Minister Jim Prentice disallowed the sale under the Investment Canada Act, a historic first since the act was established back in 1985.
In the months that have followed, Canadian Space Agency president, Dr. Steven MacLean, has led the development of a new space strategy that will be released very soon. Underscoring how important space is to the delivery of effective services to Canadians, Dr. MacLean has consulted with nine different government departments, all of whom rely on space capabilities to meet their respective mandates.
The next step in terms of supporting our space capabilities and the government's benefit from them is on the international stage. Canada's national interests depend on international space security, which is defined by the space security index as the secure and sustainable access to and use of space and freedom from space-based threats. The index is supported by Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs.
The last two years have seen some hair-raising developments in space. China destroyed one of its defunct satellites using an anti-satellite missile, creating a huge debris cloud in space. The United States likewise shot down one of its own satellites with a missile designed for its controversial and destabilizing ballistic missile defence system, and only weeks ago, two satellites collided in space, a statistical near impossibility that shows how dangerous the space environment has become, and the resulting debris field poses a hazard for the international space station.
Debris, satellite weapons, and anti-satellite weapons all demand action from space-faring nations to preserve our space security.
The Obama administration is taking space security very seriously. President Obama has made a pledge on the White House website that says this:
The Obama-Biden administration will restore American leadership on space issues, seeking a worldwide ban on weapons that interfere with military and commercial satellites.
Their plan, by the way, goes on and includes other space security initiatives too.
Tomorrow the Rideau Institute and the Secure World Foundation are holding our annual round table on space, which engages experts, government officials, and industry representatives, and which will be attended by a key adviser to President Obama on space issues, Dr. John Logsdon. Logsdon is coming to Canada because the Obama administration will be seeking partners in the international community for its space security objectives. Some officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs have been working away quietly at space security problems, winning respect from our allies. This work must be intensified and expanded so we can contribute in a significant way.
To achieve this, I would like to make the following suggestions: that this committee call upon the Minister of Foreign Affairs and department officials from the non-proliferation and disarmament division to share with the committee members how Canada can support international space security efforts; number two, that parliamentarians establish an all-party informal network on space to consider the challenges faced by Canada and hear solutions from experts and stakeholders and to foment parliamentary cooperation on these issues; third, that the government be encouraged to establish a national space policy that will guide a whole-of-government approach to space, putting principles of peaceful uses of space, international cooperation, and Canadian scientific and technical excellence at its core.
In the few minutes that I have remaining, let me address the second area where I think Canada and the U.S. share a joint interest, and that is nuclear disarmament.
What example could more clearly demonstrate the potential dangerous consequences of maintaining nuclear weapons than the collision of those British and French ballistic missile submarines at the bottom of the ocean a few weeks ago? It's one more reason why many security experts are calling for the scaling down of the more than 20,000 nuclear weapons that remain in global stockpiles. People such as Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, William Perry, and Sam Nunn were issuing joint statements calling for the reduction and eventual elimination of nuclear weapons.
Like his administration's commitment to prevent the weaponization of space, President Obama is seeking a renewed commitment for the reduction of nuclear weapons. In his famous speech in Berlin during the election campaign, then Senator Obama actually expressed support for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Now President Obama is wasting no time. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Moscow last week, and after her first face-to-face visit with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, both agreed to improve U.S.-Russia relations. Their starting point will be a new nuclear disarmament treaty to be completed by the end of the year.
Momentum is building, and Canadians should be part of it. In an important address to the upper chamber last month, Senator Hugh Segal reminded members of our traditional role in supporting nuclear disarmament. He said that avoiding nuclear war has been a pillar of Canadian foreign defence policies since the late 1950s, and he called on Canada to play a lead role in avoiding a nuclear catastrophe with Iran.
The Middle East presents us with one such opportunity, but so does Europe. This year marks the 60th anniversary of NATO. This alliance continues to adhere to a strategic concept that relies on nuclear weapons that has really not been updated for a decade.
Indeed, Canada sits on the Nuclear Planning Group, and the remarkable fact that Canada sits on any body with such an odious name as the Nuclear Planning Group would come as a surprise to many Canadians.
Many organizations, such as the Middle Powers Initiative, until this year led by a former Edmonton Conservative member of Parliament and independent Senator Douglas Roche, have been busy preparing the ground for nuclear policy reforms in NATO by working with many other non-nuclear states like Canada.
Other groups such as the Nobel Prize winning Pugwash Conference, named after that village in Nova Scotia where they first met, and Canadian Physicians for Global Survival, are calling on Canada to reaffirm Canadians' commitment to nuclear disarmament during this NATO anniversary year.
In addition to upcoming meetings at NATO, the United Nations will be preparing for the next scheduled review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2010. This provides us with another opportunity.
In conclusion, I would like to make the final recommendations building on the first three. Number four would be that the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade use this coming year to explore how Canada can contribute to nuclear disarmament, and, as Senator Segal put it in the Senate, “bring fresh thinking, new ideas and Canadian engagement to geopolitical risks we share” with the United States.