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.