Thank you very much for having me appear here today.
Thank you very much. I will be speaking in English, but I do understand questions asked in French.
I too have been following the issue of RADARSAT closely for some years now. Most recently, it's been in my capacity as the leader of a project on sovereignty and shipping in the Northwest Passage for ArcticNet, a federally funded consortium of scientists from 28 Canadian universities and five federal departments.
Prime Minister Harper has recently taken some significant steps to assert Canadian sovereignty in the north. He committed to a deep-water wharf on northern Baffin Island, a cold-weather training centre for the Canadian Forces, six to eight ice-strengthened patrol vessels for the navy, and most recently, $750 million for a polar icebreaker.
It is the latter commitment that I want to dwell on briefly in relation to the proposed sale of RADARSAT-2. Imagine that the new icebreaker was constructed as a public-private partnership with a hypothetical company called Northern Defence Associates, or NDA, a Canadian company based in Richmond, B.C. Under this hypothetical arrangement, the Canadian government contributes $445 million towards the construction of the icebreaker in return for a specified number of hours during which the vessel will be available for use on a priority basis by the Canadian Coast Guard.
Imagine also that ownership of the vessel vests in NDA, which is allowed—indeed encouraged—to create jobs and stimulate economic activity in Canada by chartering the icebreaker to other users when it is not required by the Canadian Coast Guard. Such other users might include, for example, shipping companies requiring icebreaking escorts through the Northwest Passage.
Everybody is happy, myself included. The Canadian government obtains a major tool for sovereignty assertion, NDA obtains significant subsidies in return for providing a public good, and there is opportunity to garner profits through private contracts on the side. Commercial shipping companies from around the world benefit, promoting trade and general prosperity. That is until NDA announces that it intends to sell the icebreaker to an American company called Southern Tech Systems, STK, that specializes in supporting Antarctic operations.
A controversy erupts, and rightly so. Will the icebreaker continue to be registered in Canada? You may ask if it will continue to be available for use on a priority basis by the Canadian Coast Guard, given that it might not maintain a Canadian registry, and will frequently be deployed in the southern ocean, tens of thousands of kilometres away from Canada's north. To what degree would Canada's new sovereignty assertion capabilities be lost, or at least compromised?
This is hypothetical. Does anyone think that the sale of the icebreaker would be allowed to proceed? Yet the parallel between this hypothetical and the proposed sale of RADARSAT-2 is very close indeed. RADARSAT-2 is a remarkable satellite; it provides imagery of incredibly high definition even at night and through clouds. It is the perfect tool for mapping Arctic sea ice and tracking ships.
Indeed, the Canadian Ice Service has been the largest domestic user of RADARSAT-2's less powerful predecessor, RADARSAT-1. With the Northwest Passage rapidly opening, RADARSAT-2 has become an essential tool in upholding Arctic sovereignty. Being able to monitor ships from space and map the presence and thickness of any remaining ice is a necessary complement to having naval patrol vessels, coast guard icebreakers, or helicopters available to interdict foreign vessels.
RADARSAT-2 was developed in a partnership between MDA and the Canadian Space Agency, with Canadian taxpayers paying $445 million of the total cost. In return for its investment, the Canadian government was promised large amounts of imagery as well as priority access in emergencies such as oil spills or a suspect vessel entering Canada's north.
Once RADARSAT-2 is sold to Alliant Techsystems, the United States will likely replace Canada as the country with licensing authority over it. I have sought to confirm this with several officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the minister's office, and all of them claim not to know what will happen to the licence.
If the United States becomes the licensing authority, Ottawa's ability to control what the satellite is used for and to commandeer the equipment in emergencies might be lost. And even if Canada were to retain some sort of notional control, one could well imagine that control breaking down in certain circumstances when the company in question is owned and located in the United States.
Suppose, for instance, that Canada wanted priority access for sovereignty assertion purposes just as a major war involving the United States was breaking out in the Middle East. One can even imagine the U.S. government using RADARSAT-2 in ways that directly contradict Canada's interests.