Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank the committee for the invitation and appreciate the opportunity to make an opening statement.
Let me begin by introducing René Grenier, the Deputy Commissioner of the Coast Guard. Earlier in his career, Mr. Grenier was a captain in our icebreaker fleet, so he has considerable experience working the Arctic.
I understand your committee is studying the current role of the Canadian Forces in Arctic sovereignty, and that you've invited the Canadian Coast Guard to discuss our operations in Canada's north.
Let me begin by explaining very briefly who we are. The Canadian Coast Guard is a special operating agency within the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. It delivers a series of maritime programs that focus on safety and facilitate maritime commerce. It also supports the maritime priorities and programs of DFO and other federal government departments, and in the past few years it has been playing an increasing support role in the area of maritime security.
We have a rather long and proud history of service in the Arctic. While the modern-day coast guard was created in 1962, the first of what were then called sovereignty patrols was carried out as far back as 1903 by vessels in what was then the Department of Marine and Fisheries. Nowadays, every year we deploy a total of seven icebreakers in the Arctic from late June to early November. Not surprisingly, they are often the first to arrive and the last to leave the area.
These vessels deliver a range of coast guard programs and services. For example, they provide ice escort services to commercial ships; they deploy, maintain, and recover aids to navigation; they perform harbour breakouts; they act as the primary response for ship-sourced pollution incidents; they provide maritime search and rescue services; and they deliver vital food, fuel, and other supplies to remote sites in northern communities where commercial vessels do not go.
The vessels also support a significant amount of scientific research. The members of this committee will no doubt be familiar with the International Polar Year, a global interdisciplinary project that was conducted across the Arctic in 2007 and 2008. Our science icebreaker, the coast guard vessel Amundsen, spent a record 15 months in the Arctic for IPY, making port only twice during that period. She sailed 450 days, travelled close to 32,000 nautical miles, and hosted more than 400 scientists. The efforts of that ship's crew were key to the successful completion of three major scientific missions.
In addition to our icebreakers, we also deploy two buoy tenders in the north. They conduct buoy work on the Mackenzie River. We also have a third vessel, a seasonal vessel dedicated to conducting science work on the Beaufort Sea.
In addition to the vessels, we have a coast guard base in Hay River, and we operate two Arctic maritime communication and traffic service centres that respond to calls for help from vessels at sea. As well, they screen and monitor vessels in Canada's Arctic waters. One of these centres is located in Inuvik and covers the western Arctic; the other is located in Iqaluit and serves the eastern Arctic.
Finally, we have response equipment positioned in 14 Arctic communities. This equipment is capable of containing up to 7,000 tonnes in the event of a marine spill.
Our vessels also provide vital support to the work of other government departments. I can provide a few good examples from last summer.
The CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent carried hundreds of researchers and coast guard personnel north of the Beaufort Sea to map the seabed, in support of Canada's claim to our continental shelf.
The Amundsen, which I just mentioned, was key to the completion of Health Canada's Inuit Health Survey—the first comprehensive look at the health of Canada's Inuit. This survey will form the baseline for future comparisons and provide opportunities for improving our understanding of the changes occurring in our North and how they affect the health and well-being of our Inuit.
We also provide vessels, maritime professionals and shore-based infrastructures to support the Department of National Defence.
Our services to DND include providing training platforms to the Canadian navy, the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets, and Joint Task Force Two. We also conduct search and rescue operations and sovereignty exercises with our DND partners. One example is the annual Operation Nanook, where about 75 coast guard personnel join hundreds of Canadian Forces personnel in and around Iqaluit to test our interoperability skills in on-water exercises, using coast guard and navy vessels.
One of our most evolving roles is in support of Canada's maritime security agenda. The coast guard provides shore-based and fleet assets as well as vessel traffic information and maritime expertise to the security and intelligence community to assist them in delivering their on-water national and maritime security mandate. We use information from safety-related programs and services to provide collateral benefit to the maritime security community to improve maritime domain awareness, such as, for example, the information in the automatic identification system.
We are currently leading the technical implementation and operationalization of the long-range identification and traffic system, which is a satellite-based vessel tracking system prescribed by the International Maritime Organization. It will use existing shipboard equipment to track SOLAS class vessels over 300 tonnes on international voyages. Because it is one of the only vessel traffic systems available in the north, LRIT, as it's called, will be a substantial contribution to maritime security in the Arctic and significantly improve Arctic domain awareness.
To conclude, the coast guard has been and continues to be highly active throughout the Arctic. Our continued operation in Canada's north means that many of the career commanding officers of our icebreakers have more than 20 years' service in the demanding Arctic environment. We're proud of the men and women who serve in our vessels and in the Arctic, and they, arguably, are our most valued asset.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That concludes my opening remarks. We would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.