National Defence Committee on Nov. 29th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Good morning, everyone. We're going to continue our study on readiness.

Joining us today from the Department of National Defence is Lieutenant-General Walter Semianiw, Commander of Canada Command.

General, I will open the floor for your comments.

[LGen Walter Semianiw, Commander, Canada Command, Department of National Defence]

Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. First, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and the members of this committee for allowing me to speak today.

I know that you have heard from a number of officials from the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces. I hope to add some insight into the Canadian Forces' readiness, domestic and continental operations, and the role that Canada Command plays.

Let me begin by saying a few words about the responsibilities of Canada Command. Within Canada, North America, and the western hemisphere Canada Command's mandate is to defend against threats and hazards and, when requested, to support civilian authorities to enhance the safety, security, and stability of Canadians anywhere at any time in Canada.

Of the six Canada First defence strategy missions mentioned by previous speakers, Canada Command has a lead role in four: conduct daily domestic and continental operations, support major international events held in Canada, respond to major terrorist attacks, and support civilian authorities during domestic crises such as natural disasters.

In 2010 alone Canada Command had to fulfill three of these four missions simultaneously. We provided assistance to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police security operations at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, helped restore damaged infrastructure in Newfoundland after Hurricane Igor, and conducted our daily routine operations, including maritime sovereignty patrols.

Canada Command's mandate is to oversee routine and contingency operations in Canada and continental North America. Situational awareness and good planning are critical aspects of successful contingency operations. Working with federal partners such as Public Safety Canada, Canada Command drafts contingency plans for a whole-of-government response to a range of scenarios, from a potential influenza pandemic to a major earthquake. In fact, Canada Command is the military entity responsible for supporting civilian authorities in case of crisis or emergency.

As part of these responsibilities Canada Command sits on the assistant deputy ministers national security operations committee. It meets every week and brings together key representatives from security and intelligence operational bodies. It is responsible for ensuring a coordinated federal approach in security matters.

The assistant deputy ministers committee on emergency management, which Canada Command co-chairs with Public Safety Canada, meets every six weeks with senior-level representatives from 36 government departments and agencies to discuss emergency management priorities and challenges and provide situational awareness on ongoing hazards or issues.

These committees are just one example of how the command works as part of an integrated system that relies upon the mandates and expertise of departments across the Canadian government to keep Canadians safe.

Canada Command is also responsible for bilateral relations with its equivalent organizations south of the border, both United States Northern Command and United States Southern Command. Moreover, we work closely with North American Aerospace Defence Command, or NORAD, a binational Canada-United States treaty organization responsible for monitoring and defending North America's skies.

As part of these activities, Canada Command is responsible for surveillance and sovereignty patrols, air and maritime search and rescue; assisting civil authorities during disasters or other emergencies; and when authorized, supporting law enforcement agencies.

On any given day the Canadian Forces have some 10,000 men and women on standby, enabling Canada Command to be ready to defend Canadian sovereignty, assist Canadians in need, or help our neighbours to the south. To put the scope of our domestic activities into perspective, the domestic area of operations is almost 10 million square kilometres--twice the size of Europe.

Now that you know what we're mandated to do, let me explain to you how we do it.

Canada Command is what we call a force employer. As General Natynczyk already mentioned to you, as a force employer Canada Command deploys military assets built and maintained by what are called the force generators--Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force, and the Canadian Army. These force generators provide us with both capabilities and personnel that Canada Command packages, uses, and then returns to their respective organizations once a mission is complete.

Canada Command continuously monitors developments across the country and continent and stands ready to deploy the Canadian Forces when and where needed. Maritime, land, and air intermediate response teams located in all regions of the country are ready to move on short notice, and thousands of regular and reserve military personnel can quickly be mobilized as needed. With 10 regional subordinate organizations, Canada Command is structured for the timely and efficient coordination of domestic and continental operations.

The most essential assets of Canada Command are what I call the jewel in the crown--its six regional joint task forces that are across the country. The regional joint task forces all have assigned regional responsibilities for domestic operations and work closely with provincial and territorial authorities. They are located in Halifax, Quebec City, Toronto, Yellowknife, Edmonton, and on the west coast in Victoria. These six headquarters report to Canada Command on a daily basis. They provide us with regional situation within their area of responsibility and feed the command with situational awareness.

Commanders of the six RJFs are responsible for military planning and response in their geographical areas of responsibility during emergencies, working closely with federal, provincial and territorial, and municipal partners. Regional joint task force commanders can task all available Canadian Forces resources within their region--in either Pacific, west, central, east, Atlantic, and north. The commanders conduct operations as tasked by Canada Command, such as support to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, support to Fisheries and Oceans Canada patrols, avalanche control in support of Parks Canada, as well as sovereignty patrols in support of the federal government. Should any regional joint task force need additional resources to fulfill a mission, they come back to Canada Command headquarters, at which time we assign additional capabilities to them.

The land force areas--that is west, central, east, and Atlantic--all have at their disposal a 350-person immediate response unit, or what we call IRUs. These units are deployable within 24 hours, with the initial reconnaissance team ready to deploy in just eight hours anywhere across Canada. Three search and rescue regions maintain dedicated search and rescue aircraft and crew in standby around the clock. Their respective joint rescue coordination centres are located in Victoria, Trenton, and Halifax. They coordinate air and maritime response.

Two maritime component commanders in Victoria and Halifax and a joint force air component commander co-located in Winnipeg provide maritime and air capabilities to Canada Command.

The Royal Canadian Navy is responsible for generating ready duty ships for the east and west coast. These ships must be capable of sailing in response to emergency situations within any Canadian waters within eight hours. We'll let our colleagues from the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force respectively speak to their capabilities.

Canada Command's national and regional staff total more than 300 personnel and are supported by thousands of navy, air force, army, and special operations forces personnel who stand ready to deploy when and where needed. During serious crises all available Canadian Forces personnel, including more than 20,000 reservists, stationed across the country can augment Canada Command's resources, as members of this committee saw in the last six months with the floods and with fighting the fires.

But what does this all mean? It means that Canada Command is ready. As we always say at Canada Command, the home game--defending Canada--is a no-fail mission. It's non-discretionary. With the resources provided by the navy, air force, and army we can assure the members of this committee that Canada Command continues to successfully fulfill its mandate to protect and defend Canadians at home.

Over the past six months we saw how the Canadian Forces can be called upon to help Canadians. Indeed, Canada Command has been responsible for supporting government efforts in three separate flood-related events in different regions of the country, one in Quebec and two in Manitoba at the same time, and for evacuating over 3,600 residents in seven communities in northern Ontario due to wildfire threat. In all cases, the Canadian Forces were delivering effects on the ground within 24 hours of the request of assistance from either the province or the territory.

Let me conclude by saying that in its short history Canada Command has delivered strategic effect at home with each and every one of its operations, and every time with positive outcomes. This could not be done without the men and women of the Canadian Forces who stand at the ready across the nation to support our civilian partners and help Canadians in need.

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Thank you for your opening comments, General Semianiw.

Let me say that from a Manitoba perspective we really appreciate the help the Canadian Forces gave in flood relief efforts across the province, including in my riding. I know residents in the municipalities and the province were greatly indebted to the Canadian Forces for showing up and helping out in that terrible situation.

With that, we'll go to our first round of questions.

Mr. Christopherson.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you, General. It's good to see you again.

My first question is, I confess, more of a personal interest than anything deeply strategic. Nonetheless, on page 4 you state:

In fact, Canada Command is the military entity responsible for supporting civilian authorities in case of crisis or emergency.

In a past life, as the Solicitor General in Ontario responsible for pretty much all emergencies, one of my duties early on was to have a meeting with--and I don't know the proper title--the Ontario commander of the armed forces. The purpose was to ensure that there was a pathway between the provincial government and the military, should they be requested to assist in the case of natural disasters, usually, but in anything--some of the other domestic issues that can happen.

In this case, of course, we're not talking cross-jurisdictions; it's one government. The premier would make the decision that there was a need to request the military to come in and the Solicitor General was the vehicle by which that would happen. The operational matters would be dealt with at a senior decision-making level between me and the counterpart I was meeting with, and then of course it would be handed off and those decisions would be made by senior military people.

In this case, of course, we don't have that. But you're referencing other civilian authorities that I'm assuming would likely include provincial governments, territorial governments, not unlike matters our chair has raised. I'm simply curious: how does that actually happen? What is the interface between the military, our minister, and the Prime Minister, and then other civilian authorities? How would that work? Should something happen, what kicks into place in terms of the communication that's happening, to give the appropriate bodies the authority to act appropriately?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Thank you very much for the question.

Underlying all of this is that there must be a request from the province or the territory. Then what would happen in the current construct is that the request would go to the Department of Public Safety. Public Safety would look at it, not only from a military perspective but a whole-of-government perspective, to say what tools of the federal government could be used to assist.

In the case of some of the most recent tragedies and natural disasters, when you look in a little bit more detail, it wasn't only the military that was there. There were other elements of the Government of Canada in that location.

So it goes to the Department of Public Safety. Public Safety looks at that and at the same time they're talking to all the different federal partners. If it's a disaster it would be very much through the committee I mentioned, the emergency response management committee. We'd quickly come together to talk about how we would deal with it.

That request would go to the Minister of Public Safety. The Minister of Public Safety would then go to his ministerial colleagues to ask for their support, and then we'd move ahead to provide that support.

Again, this is all contingent upon a request from the province or the territory, as in the case in Quebec. It was the province that asked us to come in, and then we were in place within 24 hours.

To put a finer point on it, there are two types of events here we need to be clear on. One is that if it's a natural disaster, that works.

As you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, if it's an issue of support, aid to the civil power where the military may have to come in and provide some type of law enforcement support, there is a possibility--not only a possibility but an actual authority--where the Solicitor General can come to the Minister of National Defence directly to ask for that type of support.

All of the different processes and all of the different mechanisms are in place to ensure that if a province or territory asks, they will get support or an answer immediately.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Very good. Thank you very much.

Moving on, the issue of search and rescue is always a big issue for Canadians, for obvious reasons. Having I believe the largest coastline in the world on our borders, there never seem to be enough resources, and there's always the political argument whether it's a crisis situation or merely another area where funding is needed because there are pressures but not necessarily a crisis. Give me your thoughts on our readiness for search and rescue, especially with a view to going forward, when you may have even fewer resources. I would expect our search and rescue needs are going to remain at least the same, if not greater.

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Thank you for the question.

First, to put a little context around the question, the lead minister for search and rescue for maritime and air is the Minister of National Defence. When it comes to ground search, that's the responsibility of the RCMP. That's the framework.

Secondly, where we have assets located is very much dependent on data. What I did bring with me, and what I am prepared to provide to the committee, are SAR incidents in proximity to Canadian SAR regions over the past ten years. We take a look at the data to see where these events likely happen and when they happen, to ensure the search and rescue assets are located in the right regions. You'll quickly see—again, I am more than prepared to provide this to the committee—that they are located where the incidents have happened over the last ten years. When you look at search and rescue, it is at the top of the priority list for the department and the Canadian Forces. I receive updates on a daily and even an hourly basis on ongoing search and rescue, what is happening on either coast or anywhere within our mandate.

I'm unaware at this point that I'm going to have fewer resources. I have not been told by anyone that there will be fewer resources for search and rescue as we move ahead. Clearly, if you take a look at the responsibility, the mandate, it remains at the top.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thanks so much, General, for the full answers. I appreciate them.

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Madam Gallant, you have the floor.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our witness.

How do Canada's SAR capabilities in the high north impact on our Arctic sovereignty?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Thank you very much for the question.

I would throw out for the committee to look at the word “sovereignty”. Sovereignty is expressed in many different ways. It's something I deal with every day. The military is only one way in which you express sovereignty. Another way is through search and rescue, because clearly what you are staking or saying very publicly is that this is your territory and you are prepared to support. When it comes to search and rescue in the north, we provide the assets and capabilities that are needed, as we do based on the incidents—as you will see here, most of those are located on the far eastern side of the north—to ensure we are maintaining and guarding our sovereignty.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Thank you.

How does a vessel having a distress radio beacon impact on the rescue time?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

If you look at the whole search and rescue construct and framework, we're starting to find the word “search” is becoming smaller with the addition of more beacons. In many cases, if you have a beacon very little search is required to find an individual. We know where it happens.

From a process point of view, once either a maritime or air beacon is triggered, it immediately goes to a centre, and then action is taken by a number of different agencies. If everyone were to have a beacon, response would be even quicker. You'll find in some cases there is no mandate to have beacons when travelling in the north; it's left up to individuals. From my perspective, I would encourage anyone going into the north to have a beacon, which would help make things much easier for everybody.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Last week we were told by the secretary of state from Norway that the F-35s were necessary for the patrol of the north, and that Russia is increasing its defence budget by 60% in standing up an Arctic force. He also said that NATO cooperation is necessary for our respective countries' Arctic sovereignty. From the standpoint of Canada Command, how does the alliance benefit from our ability to guard our Arctic sovereignty?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

When you look at our Arctic sovereignty, it is clearly our Arctic sovereignty, and we use all available means to express that in the north. The Government of Canada has an Arctic strategy with four pillars. One of them speaks to sovereignty, and the others speak to economic development and governance. We are moving ahead very quickly.

As the committee discusses the north, I throw a comment out to you that has kind of struck me, as somebody who has been to the north. Someone in the far north told me once to never forget that a footprint in the north lasts 40 years. What does that mean? It clearly means that before you do anything in the north, think it through, because whatever you do in the north will have long-term ramifications.

Clearly, as we move ahead to build our capabilities in the north working with our other partners.... We are working, for example, in search and rescue. The Arctic Council met some time in May, and Canada volunteered to run our first search and rescue Arctic Council tabletop exercise, which we did. We were in Whitehorse for that event, where all eight of the different Arctic Council nations sent delegations, where we talked about how we could work with each other and assist each other for search and rescue in the Arctic, in the high north. It's an example of a forum or a body that works together on the issue of search and rescue to ensure we're doing better than what we already are and we know where we need to improve.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

My question is specifically with respect to national defence and our alliance partners through NATO. Do you see a direct benefit in having that available, or are we able to patrol our waters all on our own?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

We can patrol our waters. If you look at the north, and it's worth the committee actually looking at the geography, clearly when you use the words “patrol our waters”, we do already. Canada's coast guard is in the north, so we do patrol our waters and we do express our sovereignty every day through the coast guard. The Royal Canadian Navy is with the coast guard, and does support them throughout the year. With the Arctic offshore ship coming on line, that will only add to our capabilities to be able to patrol even better in the north.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

In the past we had struck up a special regiment specifically to respond to a threat from Russia during the Cold War. Is there an equivalent regiment ready to go, given the fact that Russia is standing up its own force by increasing their defence budget 60%?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

As mentioned in my comments up front, we have these entities called immediate reaction units—350 personnel that can be built very quickly. We can put them into the north extremely quickly. For example, given that we now have C-17s in the inventory of the Canadian Forces, we can move forces into the north within four or five hours as far as Resolute.

We have the forces that we need to be able to deploy and have them in the north, given the additional capabilities with air movement to be able to express our sovereignty when needed, as well as what was announced. There are also Arctic response company groups across Canada. These are reserve organizations that provide that second-tier responder focused on training, working, and having expertise in the north. They could come and provide additional support to any issue that occurred in the north.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

How does Canada Command interact with NORAD?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Commander NORAD reports directly to the Chief of Defence Staff, as does Canada Command, as does Commander CEFCOM. The three of us report to the Chief of Defence Staff. When one looks at NORAD, it has many Canadians in it. On a day-to-day basis, our two staffs speak. We have ongoing discussion between our staffs. We conduct trilateral staff talks with all the commanders.

I see Commander NORAD quite a bit. For example, over the last four months I've been with him at least four or five times. We have been able to discuss things; we have an open dialogue. I talk to him and he talks to me as we need. There's a very open dialogue: the staffs talk, we have staff discussions, we work together in very much an integrated approach.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Thank you. And on your comment about a footprint in the Arctic lasting 40 years, I was up at Churchill, where the old forces base used to be, and tracks made in the tundra from the fifties and the sixties are still very visible today.

Mr. McKay, it's your turn.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Last year I had the opportunity to be in Greenwood and to go out in helicopters. There we were in the Hercules, and I actually participated in a search and rescue, which was unanticipated on our part. I was shocked by the amount of territory that has to be covered from Greenwood and from St. John's. It's just extraordinary.

I wanted to relate to the apparent drawdown of resources in St. John's. I'm just curious as to how the drawdown of resources and the limitations that are apparently being imposed in St. John's can actually speak to readiness for what appears to be in your map the most concentrated area of search and rescue. I was wondering if you could speak to that, please.

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Monsieur le président, perhaps I could get a clarification.

When you talk about the drawdown in St. John's, which drawdown are you speaking about?

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

I'm speaking about the limitations on the timeliness of the ability to respond.