Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to both witnesses for being here. I have a couple of quick comments first, then some questions.
Professor Byers, as you know, search and rescue in Canada, including the north, is based on risk assessment and cost. If we had unlimited resources and unlimited people, obviously we'd be in a lot of places that we can't currently be in at the moment.
The other point is that if you have Russian bears who ultimately wind up within 41 miles of Inuvik, we can say that's not very close, but when the intercept is coming from well over a thousand miles away in Cold Lake, then how long do you wait? Also, General Renuart, whose own forces conduct these missions all the time, fully supports that kind of operation and the necessity for conducting it.
I have a couple of questions for you specifically, first to Professor Byers.
We've talked about the threat of state players, non-state players, and so on. What's your view of the Russian plan to field an Arctic-specific military force that they announced a little while ago?