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.