Evidence of meeting #49 for National Defence in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was ships.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Peter Kent
Colleagues, welcome.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), today we will continue our study of the defence of North America.
We have one witness with us today, Rear-Admiral John Newton, commander of Maritime Forces Atlantic and Joint Task Force Atlantic.
Admiral, thank you for presenting yourself to us today.
Your opening remarks, please.
Rear-Admiral John Newton Commander, Maritime Forces Atlantic and Joint Task Force Atlantic, Department of National Defence
Yes, sir.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, everyone.
It's truly an honour to be here today to describe Canada's naval forces in the Atlantic and their contribution to the defence of North America. I will also comment on the role of the marine security operations centre and provide some thoughts on search and rescue.
By way of background, since you didn't present it, sir, I am the commander of Maritime Forces Atlantic. I'm the commander of the Joint Task Force Atlantic. I'm the commander of the Halifax Search and Rescue region, and I'm the Maritime Component commander for naval operations around the world.
Conservative
RAdm John Newton
Aye aye, sir.
Canada's naval forces on the Atlantic coast consist of the fleet, a diving unit, a ship repair unit, a logistics supply system, an intelligence and information fusion centre, and a naval headquarters.
My focus is always on preserving and increasing the operational readiness of these forces, ensuring excellence in operations and preserving the fine reputation of the Royal Canadian Navy as second to none in our circle of allies. The recent award of a Meritorious Unit Commendation to HMCS Toronto by the United States speaks directly to our single-minded intent.
Since naval power includes unique aviation capabilities, it bears noting that 12 Wing Shearwater is where the helicopters of the fleet are based. From 14 Wing Greenwood, long-range patrol aircraft provide targeting, tracking, and surveillance to our naval forces.
A foundation of infrastructure and services support the operational elements of naval power. These are formed under Canadian Forces Base Halifax, arguably the largest base in the Canadian Armed Forces.
The fleet comprises seven frigates of the Halifax class, the remaining destroyer of the Iroquois class, six coastal patrol vessels of the Kingston class, and presently one submarine of the Victoria class.
There are roughly 2,700 Regular Force Canadian Armed Forces members serving aboard ships of the fleet and another 1,500 ashore in readiness generation support activities of one kind or another.
In addition, 2,100 public service employees, mainly in technical and operational trades form an essential element of the defence team supporting the Atlantic Fleet.
Halifax class modernization is the main focus of activity, and the turning point of the project was the recent deployment of HMCS Fredericton to the NATO Reassurance mission. The ship's crew is flawlessly executing our maritime security mission in the Mediterranean Sea with NATO allies.
Aside from Fredericton, three other ships have been modernized at Irving Shipbuilding, and their readiness is building quickly, each available for tasking to some degree or another. Government, navy, and industry cooperation remains exceptional and contributes to the rapid return to readiness of these wonderfully capable and broadly useful warships. As the major ships return the fleet to operational utility, scheduling and readiness pressures are easing. Two modernized frigates are fully committed to aiding the Royal Canadian Air Force deliver the Cyclone helicopter, in and amongst their own readiness and continental defence activities.
It is important to note that naval operations are conducted as multi-ship endeavours, coordinated with submarines and air forces, informed by intelligence and information networks, and driven by command and control nodes. Consequently, major task group exercises need to be conceived nationally and with our allies in order to create operational readiness. No one ship, fleet or navy brings the total capability required to a complex maritime operation without helping each other.
In the case of the Atlantic fleet task group, exercises with the United States naval counterparts are underway in eastern seaboard waters involving HMCS Montreal and the flagship Athabaskan. The sharing of resources between the two navies in order to achieve the highest impact on learning possible is commonplace.
The recent retirement of the Protecteur class replenishment ship presents a challenge. However, relationships with allies are strong, and careful scheduling and fleet planning are ensuring that Canadian naval forces continue to receive the training required for difficult replenishment operations under way, while preserving to some degree our freedom of manoeuvre across the vast distances of the North Atlantic and in the European theatre.
The submarine Windsor is operating in and out of this east coast task group exercise as her own readiness validation proceeds. The technical and operational readiness of the submarine will peak this summer, and then she will stand ready to be employed in the Atlantic theatre, supported by deployed logistics, engineering, and operational support elements.
I am very pleased to report that the investment in the new submarine shelter in Halifax and the refurbishment of the associated Syncrolift dock allowed Windsor to have the defective diesel generator repaired quickly. Simultaneously, the navy ship repair workers installed a modernized sonar system of the same variety as is used in the nuclear attack submarines of the United States Navy. This success highlights the necessity of an effective and close relationship between the fleet and a strong repair capacity.
Our efforts in generating operational readiness are focused on maintaining a Canadian naval task group at high readiness, combining elements of the east and west coast fleets to sustain a rapidly deployable, logistically supported, and agile force capable of undertaking a broad range of defence and security tasks.
In the Caribbean sea, two patrol ships, Shawinigan and Goose Bay, and two more in the Pacific, Nanaimo and Whitehorse, are operating in support of the United States Coast Guard-led Joint Interagency Task Force South. Each ship carries aboard the United States Coast Guard law enforcement detachment under whose authority they conduct the drug interdictions. The important mission is taking drugs off the streets of Canada and the United States while impacting illegal revenues generated by the illicit trade that weakens South and Central American countries.
During these missions, our ships engage in capacity building with the navies of 14 partner states that contribute to the mission, supporting regional engagement. They stand ready in the event that there is a call for humanitarian aid or disaster relief.
In the Arctic, the Atlantic Fleet is a strong partner in the whole of government effort to exert and protect Canadian sovereignty. Our ships routinely join Op Nanook and are integral partners with Joint Task Force North, the Canadian Coast Guard, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Canadian Hydrographic Service, the Canada Border Services Agency, the RCMP and the Government of Nunavut, amongst others.
These vibrant relationships were demonstrated in the successful search for the lost ships of the Franklin Expedition in 2014.
The platform of collaboration created by the marine security operations centre facilitates very effective intergovernmental interactions to ensure that security partners can respond effectively and quickly to emerging threats. The behaviour is practised annually through exercise scenarios under my joint task force command mandate. I reach out to both federal and provincial authorities to ensure that partner agencies are networked and have a thorough understanding of the military capabilities that can be employed to help manage the consequences of crisis situations, natural disasters, and humanitarian arisings. The Canadian maritime response to the Ebola crisis, illegal drug importation, major marine disasters, and terrorism are cases in point where effective collaboration and cooperation are readily apparent.
Aside from these activities in the Arctic and in the Americas, and presently on NATO Reassurance, naval ships contribute to maritime domain awareness every day they are at sea. Moreover, a warship is committed to being the ready duty ship, ready to sail at eight hours notice every day of the year. While ships are active on the seas staff ashore work tirelessly to build and improve relationships with partners, with organizations like NORAD; in the international SAR cooperation; with the Tri-Party, which is the Joint Task Force Atlantic, the United States Coast Guard, and the United States Navy; and in theatre anti-submarine warfare.
In closing, I'd like to speak just for one brief moment on search and rescue and my command of the Halifax SAR region. It includes the land areas of the Atlantic provinces, Labrador, and half of Baffin Island, and the ocean areas of the western North Atlantic, Labrador Sea, and Davis Strait.
My mandate is the provision of aeronautical and marine SAR, employing air forces of the Royal Canadian Air Force and ships of the Canadian Coast Guard. Given the broad maritime domain, frequent extreme weather, winter icing, busy international shipping lanes, active domestic and international fisheries, tourism, and Canada's only offshore petroleum production fields, search and rescue in the region is busy and demanding. Despite this it is very successfully managed due to the expertise and professionalism of the rescue boat crews, the flight crews, and the search and rescue technicians. Constant liaison with the various SAR stakeholders, tactical and operational level exercises, and collaboration with provincial and territorial governments ensures that the system functions optimally.
Mesdames et messieurs, thank you for the opportunity to provide this broad overview of a complex and very wide defence and security mandate of the navy, Joint Task Force Atlantic, the marine security operations centre, and of search and rescue.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Peter Kent
Thank you, Admiral.
We'll proceed now to our first round of questioning of seven-minute segments.
Mr. Norlock, please.
Conservative
Rick Norlock Conservative Northumberland—Quinte West, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and to the witness, thank you for attending today.
Since this is the study of the defence of North America and as you are a commander of the JTF Atlantic and Maritime Forces Atlantic, what do you perceive to be the greatest threat to Canada's Atlantic marine domain and what measures are you taking and are we taking so as to be able to reduce that threat?
RAdm John Newton
I think the greatest threat is just knowing what is happening in Canada's ocean areas of interest. Our ocean areas of interest are not defined by territorial seas or economic exclusion zones or even the enlarged shelf, it is the sea lanes that approach from everywhere around the world. The global economy floats on salt water. It is actually a truism that everything we buy and sell, resources, are marketed across the sea.
Having an understanding of those massive volumes of ship movements in the North Atlantic in particular is of great importance to me. These are the same vectors by which terrorism could penetrate our country if we don't monitor and track the shipping and understand the shipping intent. But also by following the shipping and understanding the movement and trends we can see what is going to happen in the Arctic and we can understand the intent of foreign national interests in science, energy exploitation, and even things like tourism.
Conservative
Rick Norlock Conservative Northumberland—Quinte West, ON
Thank you.
You noted monitoring commercial vessels and other vessels that are in the area, etc. You left out what I would consider an important component, and that would be how about navies, especially submarines, etc., might be plying our waters. Does that encompass some of your duties?
RAdm John Newton
Yes, sir, and why I paused at the beginning was just to put my.... You asked for the highest priority threat to me, which is the shipping plot.
February 25th, 2015 / 3:50 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Norlock Conservative Northumberland—Quinte West, ON
Excuse me. Just so that our constituents understand what you're saying—I do, by the way—you're saying understanding the usage of the commercial shipping lanes and commercial shipping enterprises as well as vessels as a means by which to perform clandestine activities is one of your principal aims. Is that what you're saying?
RAdm John Newton
Yes, sir, exactly, and I'm saying just to monitor the intent of foreign government ships, which often have military nexus to their activities.
The naval menace on the seas clearly is foreign submarine fleets, should those countries that own them become adversarial to Canada's national interests. Therefore, on the long-term basis, as a theatre anti-submarine warfare commander responsible for the western North Atlantic, I participate with a series of colleagues and headquarters around the North Atlantic. It's headquartered out of Norfolk, Virginia, for the U.S. eastern seaboard; headquartered out of England for a large chunk of the Greenland, United Kingdom, Iceland gap; and all the way up the Norwegian coast we have interest as we watch the foreign submarine fleets come out of the Russian northern bases. This is a background activity in which I participate fully and to which I exercise and train an annual basis.
Conservative
Rick Norlock Conservative Northumberland—Quinte West, ON
Thank you very much.
One of the things we deal with as the country with the second-largest land mass in the world is, of course, the longest coastline in the world, and it presents some rather obvious challenges. How do you meet those challenges or attempt to overcome them in regard to keeping track of what's happening along part of the longest coastline in the world?
RAdm John Newton
That's actually the most enjoyable part of my job, participating in an enterprise called the marine security operations centre. This is a day-to-day capability euphemistically termed the MSOC. It is headquartered in my headquarters building. It is very close to the search and rescue centre, and it's just feet away from my joint operations centre from which I command military operations. The MSOC brings the partners—the RCMP, the border security agency, Transport Canada, CSIS, coast guard, and the navy—to a common table, much like this, and the operators at that table have formed trusted relationships, and information from their networks comes to the table. It is not communicated directly between services because there's a jurisdictional and legal boundary between our information flows. But when people perceive something is going wrong on the seas, whether it's the border services or immigration or a criminal act, they talk because they want to know where the possible maritime track is. They want to determine if there's a requirement for a collective maritime response from all the parties that have maritime resources. The team works out the nature of the threat, who the lead agency is, and what they're going to do about it. Sometimes that leads to a minister-to-minister talk, so that military resources are engaged to actually go after the surveillance of the track.
It's a very effective system, sir. The MSOC is looked at by countries around the world as a model of whole-of-government inter-agency cooperation. It is literally done on a cigarette pack, financially, and in the spirit of collaboration, and I cannot think of a better model. It's just done between people in departments who know that the ocean is a difficult environment and they have to work together to get to the bottom of the threats.
Conservative
Rick Norlock Conservative Northumberland—Quinte West, ON
Thank you.
On another track, you mentioned, of course, at the beginning of the meeting in your presentation to us, that there is a great degree, a good level of cooperation between the Maritime Forces Atlantic and our American allies and other international naval forces.
Could you expand on how this contributes to the overall defence of North America and complements what you are doing?
RAdm John Newton
A very strong bilateral relationship exists between Canada and the United States, between two navies with a long history of service and fighting together, with the background of NORAD and the permanent joint border defence behind them as the substance of the relationship.
My fleet and the fleet on the west coast have joined forces with the U.S. fleet forces, so I'm going to speak about my coast. The U.S. Fleet Forces Command is the American naval entity on the east coast. The United States Coast Guard, LANTAREA, which is their Atlantic-facing coast guard command, cooperates, collaborates, and plans our way through our annual activities with Joint Task Force Atlantic and with the Royal Canadian Navy.
Annually, we share the leadership of an exercise called Frontier Sentinel. It is a component of Determined Dragon and Vigilant Shield, which are a defence of North America. Using this bilateral relationship, we mimic the sort of cooperation you understand from your learning about NORAD. We do that on the maritime domain.
Last year's scenario was a terrorist or an individual with terrorist inclinations using a ship to import material to Canada and the United States. The year before it was a chemical precursor agent being imported through shipping containers. We use this platform of Frontier Sentinel and the collaboration of the three entities to ensure that our shipping plots are locked, and we're exercising to the maximum effect in the maritime domain.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Peter Kent
Thank you, that's your time, Mr. Norlock.
Mr. Harris, you have seven minutes, please.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Admiral, for joining us today.
If I have this right, you are commander of Maritime Forces Atlantic as well as Joint Task Force Atlantic, which is essentially two hats, the naval hat and the whole-of-operations hat. Am I right?
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
In terms of the naval aspect, you listed out the fleet, and you have seven frigates, one destroyer, six coastal patrol vessels, and one submarine. That's just for the Atlantic, I take it.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
Given the size of Canada's coastline, as Mr. Norlock pointed out, the fact that we have three coasts, and the international operations you talked about, do you regard those 14 vessels as adequate for the domain that you have to deal with, as well as the responsibilities?
It seems a small fleet to me. I am speaking as a layman now, but I do know that there are some concerns that the senior service, the navy, is perhaps the neglected service in the armed forces of Canada.
Do you feel the need for more vessels, more coverage, and more equipment, or are you satisfied that you have enough to do the job?
RAdm John Newton
Sir, the size of the Canadian navy is established by governments, and it's a major policy decision above me. We provide them with guidance to determine what the optimal size is.
I would say this from my experience, sir: It isn't just about the navy. It is about the joint forces that work in the maritime domain: the beautiful, modern Cyclone helicopter; the enhanced and upgraded Block III Aurora fleet; the large fleet of the Canadian Coast Guard, which operates in the maritime domain with us in the Arctic; the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' science and policing fleet; the coastal vessels of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; the aircraft of Environment Canada; the aircraft of Transport Canada; and the surveillance aircraft of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
We work as an integrated maritime force that's been going on since the 1980s. I think it was the ombudsman helping out with the government agent who forced all the maritime authorities to collaborate and cooperate on the seas with the fleets we had, so that we didn't waste the resources of our country building individual fleets.
Could I add one more thing, sir?
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
I think that probably covers the fact that there are others, other than your 14 ships, at work there.
Since 1992, Admiral, there has been a collaboration between the navy and the Marine Institute of Memorial University to train combat systems technicians as a joint venture and a two-year program. That program was up for renewal, and in fact tenders were called, but I'm told that it will not be continued, though some 900 people, according to the website of Memorial, have been training in this program.
You won't be training people in that program in the future, is that correct? If that's the case, how are you going to be able to provide trained sailors to do the work that's required?
RAdm John Newton
Sir, the Marine Institute provided a phenomenally high-quality graduate to the navy in both the combat systems and the marine engineering technical trades. I will give them that; they are a wonderful school. But they are one of about 60 schools across Canada that could do the same job.
So, while the navy had created this beautiful relationship with the Marine Institute that generated these sailors, and delivered about 90% of the navy's requirement in those technical trades, the Canadian Armed Forces, which is an integrated system with the chief of military personnel who's responsible for a good element of our education and programs, developed a more economical program using all of the colleges of Canada, called the non-commissioned member strategic education plan—or something like that. I only know it as NCM-SEP. The SEP was more economical for the Canadian Armed Forces to get into, so we moved from a very expensive, gold-plated program to a more economical, broad-based Canadian program.
I do not know, sir—and I'll have to get back to you and take it on note—whether we're cancelling the Marine Institute program. I do not know of it being cancelled. I know of it being reduced, but I can provide a more pointed answer to you.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
That would be helpful, sir, as we have been concerned about the effects of cutbacks to operations, training, and those sorts of things.
On SAR, and I don't know if I have enough time to ask one more question—