It's a good question. I'm not sure there is a defence answer to this, or a defence need.
We could encourage ships to come through the Northwest Passage, but we're choosing not to. The passage is open to anyone who comes through under Canadian law and regulations. We say, come ahead. We do not lay in icebreaker support, nor do we propose to convoy ships through. Ships, as they come, commercial vessels, will be self-sufficient and able to operate on their own. That's the Canadian way, as opposed to the Russian way. The Russians want people to come through. They have not been very successful in this because they charge immensely high rates, there is unbelievable bureaucracy, and they don't really have their act together, but one day they probably will. They've decided for themselves that they want the ships to come.
We've not really had this discussion yet in this country, and it's not a matter of defence; it's a matter of saying to ourselves, “Do we actually want ships to come?” Instead, we're saying, “The ships are coming, the ships are coming,” and there's this exaggerated worry, because they're not coming any time soon. We could talk about that. We might make them come a little sooner if we wanted it.
The question is, what's the benefit of ships coming through for Canada? It would cost us a certain amount to look after these waters if there were more and more ships, intercontinental voyages coming through. We would need to lay in more capability, and we would be liable too, perhaps, in some ways for certain mishaps that might happen in a manner that we're not now. Do we want this to happen? What is in it for us?
I don't think there's a lot in it for northerners, because if ships are coming through, container ships for instance, they want to come through lickety-split, as fast as they can. They're not going to stop and give any benefit on the way. They will, when the time comes, if it ever comes, want to be liner ships on a really rigorous service, highly economic. If there's old ice, if there's fog, if there are high seas wending through the labyrinth of the archipelago, I don't think they're likely to do it.
There's not a defence requirement here, as I see it. We could decide to encourage shipping and make use of the passage, but we have not so far even broached this discussion. We've been instead, I believe, rather passive, worrying about ships that will come, rather than thinking about what we want. What we want has to do with constabulary capabilities--that is, satellite surveillance and some capacity to police shipping--which we don't have. I would think the coast guard is the prime agent, though, in all of this, rather than DND.