Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 12th, 2026

[René Ouellette]

An obvious example would be research partnerships that maybe flow from climate change concerns, such as how the passageways are evolving. A lot of that research would involve sensors, for example, that are placed in the region. Those sensors are collecting information about various different things that are related to that legitimate research, but they are also collecting information about other kinds of movements in the region that could be of use to the military or intelligence capacity of a foreign country.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills North, ON]

With respect to Arctic research, particularly Arctic research funded by the four granting councils—the tri-councils and the Canada Foundation for Innovation—I know that several years ago there were concerns that money from the Government of Canada was flowing into research collaboration that involved malevolent state actors or their proxies. The industry minister at the time issued new guidelines, I believe, to the granting councils to ensure that this money didn't flow into these partnerships.

Does this funding of research as it relates to things including climate change in Canada's Arctic remain a concern for the service, or has that largely been addressed through the actions taken previously by the then minister of industry?

[René Ouellette]

It obviously remains a concern, but the policy and legal responses to the problem that we identified in the 2020 time frame.... There has been a lot of investment within government and with research institutions themselves to allow them to avail themselves of research security expertise on their own. We are very tightly connected with those entities as well, to keep sharing information about the nature of the threat, exactly as is mentioned here.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills North, ON]

I know that, in the last Trudeau government budget, CSIS was allocated resources to hire, from what I recall, hundreds of new agents, in the greater Toronto area in particular, to counter foreign interference threat activities there.

Is CSIS ramping up its resources in the north as well?

[Paul Lynd]

As I mentioned, there are resource considerations to being able to ramp up in the north, and we don't have specific funding related to ramping up resources in the north.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills North, ON]

Is that a request of CSIS through the budget process?

[Paul Lynd]

Is that a current request of CSIS right now? I'm sorry, but I'm not in a position to answer the question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Thank you very much. We're over the time.

Thank you very much, gentlemen, for your appearance and for your testimony before this committee today. We're very appreciative.

We will now briefly suspend to prepare the last portion—

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills North, ON]

Mr. Chair, before we suspend.... I assume we're going in camera.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

There's one more member.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills North, ON]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

We'll go to MP Fancy.

You have five minutes, and then we'll suspend.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you, witnesses, for today.

I have a couple of quick questions in regard to the intelligence gap and, looking toward future legislation, the role CSIS will have in helping us develop that.

In terms of the intelligence gap, what further details could you provide to the committee about the multi-faceted nature of security threats to the Arctic overall?

[René Ouellette]

Can you repeat the question?

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

We're looking for further details that you could provide on some of the stuff we've talked about today in terms of the multi-faceted nature of security in the Arctic and the intelligence gaps that we have currently.

[René Ouellette]

I think it's fair to say that the service believes that it has most of the authorities it requires, specifically related to the Arctic.

We're very happy to be here today to speak to this committee and to shine a light on the issues and the threats that are manifest there.

Going back to the questions we answered, just speaking about infrastructure concerns and the socio-economic concerns raised there would certainly help mitigate national security threats facing the region.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Outside of those infrastructure gaps, what other key tools—and legislation can be part of that—do you feel that CSIS needs to help strengthen national resilience in the Arctic?

[Paul Lynd]

One of the key tools is the change to the CSIS Act that occurred a couple of years ago, which allows us to share information. We call them resiliency briefings. The fact that we can now share the findings of our investigations, the threats, with wider partners and not just with small sections of the federal government has been a tremendous tool for the service.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Are there any other tools or authorities that you feel we should be providing in our legislation to help you do your job? I'm giving you the wish list here.

[Paul Lynd]

Right now, I believe that we have the necessary tools to be able to do our job, to be able to investigate those threats and to share that information.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

My colleague Mr. Chong talked about allies and partnerships.

Our foreign affairs minister recently met with the Secretary General of NATO. In terms of our partnerships, what role do you think CSIS plays in contributing to these allied partnerships as we grow and build them across the threat environment, across the Arctic?

[Paul Lynd]

I would say that these partnerships are extremely important, because they allow us to share information on a threat from our different perspectives. It allows us to look for opportunities where we can work jointly against a threat, where we can jointly mitigate the threat. We can share training opportunities and have discussions about different capabilities that we may be able to amplify or use to support each other in working against these threats in the Arctic.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you.

Lastly, as a wrap-up, what role do you feel that NATO allies play in enhancing Canada's own awareness of the threat environment in the Arctic?

[Paul Lynd]

My answer would be similar to the last one. I think the role those allies play could also help us in terms of sharing information on the threat environment and looking for opportunities to work together to counter some of those threats.

As I mentioned, not all threats to the Arctic happen in the Arctic; some of them happen outside the Arctic. These allies could be very useful and helpful to us in terms of being able to have impact against those threats and not necessarily having to do that in the Arctic.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you.