Evidence of meeting #122 for National Defence in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was armed.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Stephen Fuhr
Good morning. Welcome, everyone, to defence committee this morning. I'd like to welcome the chief of the defence staff, General Vance, to the committee to talk to us about Operation Impact.
Sir, I know you're very familiar with the committee procedures, so I'll just turn the floor over to you for your opening remarks.
General Jonathan Vance Chief of the Defence Staff, Department of National Defence
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's great to be back.
To all members of the committee, thank you very much for inviting me to speak before you. At the outset, I want you to know that I truly anticipate and look forward to these sessions. In my role, I think it's important to be able to answer your questions and give you the information that you want, need and deserve.
Today, I will provide you with an update about Operation Impact. Our specific military activities for this operation have evolved over time, but I want you to know the aim of Operation Impact remains clear and unchanged. We are one of 79 coalition members committed to defeating Daesh and setting the conditions for security and stability in the region. As you know, Daesh has lost over 98% of the territory it once held. Almost eight million people have been liberated from their control and the coalition has trained and equipped more than 170,000 members of the Iraqi security forces.
All that to say that the coalition's efforts have been effective. Daesh's territorial control has been severely reduced. People are returning to their homes and rebuilding their lives.
The coalition is moving into a phase of stabilization. In other words, it is focusing on aiding the Government of Iraq in restoring, maintaining and establishing civil order and governance.
The fight is not over. There is more work to be done.
Daesh has moved underground. Although significantly weakened, it is likely that the group will continue to launch small-scale attacks and try to reorganize. The prevailing ideology and instability that enabled it to rise are not yet defeated. Therefore, this is not a risk-free environment, but I can assure you that the men and women on the ground, your soldiers, are well trained and carefully selected for their expertise.
We conduct rigorous planning to make sure our people have the right equipment, the right support, and the right command and control structures. In short, we ensure that they have everything they need to accomplish their tasks.
We have been gradually shifting from achieving tactical effects to setting the conditions for regional stability and security.
As we move forward, we will remain flexible to meet the evolving demands of the campaign. In the air, our Polaris tanker has enabled coalition partners to fly longer and farther, which enhances their operational effectiveness. Our C-130 Hercules aircraft have transported more than eight million pounds of cargo.
In northern Iraq, three CH-146 Griffon helicopters provide our deployed personnel with tactical airlift, transporting Canadian troops, equipment and supplies, who are conducting the train, advise and assist mission to support the ISF. Also in northern Iraq, we have led our role 2 medical facilities since October 2016. We have provided medical and dental care to over 2,500 people.
On the intelligence front, we have a team that collects, synthesizes and analyzes intelligence to support the coalition. This is used to protect our partner forces and plan operations.
In moving to more of a regional outlook, we have multiple teams working to build resilience and enable long-term security and stability. Brigadier-General Rob Delaney leads the ministerial liaison team. We took on that leadership role in 2016 and have been working to build enduring relationships with the Iraqi government. In the past year and a half, we have also increased our focus on training. Our combat engineers are delivering counter-improvised explosive device training and route clearance training to Iraqi security forces. This September, we started a training facility, called Q-West, in the north. We've trained over 500 Iraqi security forces members thus far. In Jordan and Lebanon, our training and assistance teams are working to build our partners' military capacities.
Now, I would like to take a moment to clarify a few points about our special operations forces' train, advise and assist mission. Early on during Operation Impact, special operations forces' members partnered with the Kurdish peshmerga, who were facing an immediate threat as Daesh swept over northern Iraq. In coordination with our coalition partners, we determined that we could achieve the greatest effect by working with them. Our train, advise and assist efforts enabled the Kurdish security forces to refine their skills, bolster their defences and set the stage for their participation in the Mosul operation in October 2016.
As you know, the Iraqi security forces successfully took back Mosul last summer. Canada was a key contributor to this success, in an advisory capacity at the tactical level.
As the campaign evolved—from degrading Daesh, to counterattack, to defeating their organized efforts—our partnerships have also evolved.
In order to support Iraqi-led efforts in Mosul, we partnered with select Iraqi security force units—all of which were carefully vetted.
These decisions were based on the coalition campaign requirements, and based on where our special operations forces members could provide the most effective contribution.
We continue to take that approach, working with specific Iraqi units to achieve the greatest effect in maintaining security.
Looking to the future, in addition to other activities under Operation Impact, a Canadian will lead the NATO training mission in Iraq. This mission is not a replacement of the coalition. It's complementary. Our contribution to the NATO mission includes up to 250 troops. A number of Canadians have already arrived and are setting up, and the mission is expected to start fully early in the new year. It's being led by Major-General Dany Fortin, late of commanding the 1st Canadian Division. I have great confidence in his leadership.
The NATO mission will provide training to Iraqi security forces and help Iraq build a more effective national defence and security structure. We are taking a train-the-trainer approach to create sustainable change, particularly in their educational and training institutions. Along with our allies, we'll help our Iraqi partners to develop skills in key areas like bomb disposal, combat medicine and logistics. Throughout all of it, we will place emphasis on the law of armed conflict.
To conclude, as we move forward, the Canadian Armed Forces will be contributing to both coalition and NATO efforts in the region during Operation Impact. These efforts are being well coordinated and are complementary to each other. This is a complex problem that cannot be solved by military might alone. Our efforts are part of a broader international and Government of Canada strategy, which includes humanitarian assistance, development aid and political and security sector reform.
As the conditions in Iraq and the region evolve, I will continue to work with the minister, the deputy minister, and our allies and partners to develop, execute and assess our plans. Through all of that, ladies and gentlemen, our deployed men and women are doing what they do best. They're professional, they lead and they demonstrate every day operational excellence in challenging areas of operations.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
I will be very happy to take your questions.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Stephen Fuhr
Thank you very much, General.
I'll just remind everybody at the table. If you see me waving this paper, would you wind down your comments within 30 seconds to facilitate a graceful dismount and move to the next question.
I'll yield the floor for the first question to MP Gerretsen.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you, General, for being here today to update us on Operation Impact.
I know you've already touched on, in your opening remarks, some of the areas in which we are participating. Can you discuss some of the specific strengths and areas where Canadian troops are leading the mission?
Gen Jonathan Vance
Certainly. I would start with the NATO mission. We put an experienced major-general, two star, in place to mount and do the first year of this mission. It's complex to be the first rotation that does this. He is showing great leadership, as are the Canadians who are involved in force protection, the aviation support to that mission, as well as those who will be doing the training.
I think we have particular strength through our special operations forces as they transition from the peshmerga to new partners in the Iraqi security forces, with a focus on training and advising them as they conduct operations to maintain security in the area and environment of Mosul.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Is Canada well regarded for its ability to train and advise?
Gen Jonathan Vance
I can't forget the medical facility. We have fantastic doctors and technicians, and as you saw by the numbers, over 2,500 people were served for medical and dental problems. They've done a fantastic job.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
The coalition has committed to tackling Daesh's financing and economic infrastructure, preventing the flow of foreign terrorist fighters across borders, supporting stabilization, restoring central public services to areas liberated from Daesh, as well as countering propaganda. Can you specify in which of these roles Canadian Forces are contributing, and can you provide some examples as to the impact they're having?
Gen Jonathan Vance
We are predominantly involved in the tactical operations on the ground, largely focused on maintaining security and developing the capacity and capability of the Iraqi security forces.
Where it's appropriate, we are involved in intelligence sharing that may have an impact, with our Five Eyes partners and through the wider coalition effort to gather intelligence. Through that process, it is possible and it has occurred that foreign fighters and their movements have been identified.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Thank you.
Switching gears a little bit, I come from a riding that has a military base in it, and there's a lot of stress that's put on not just those who are deployed but their families, and in particular while they're deployed. Some of the resources that work extremely well are the military resource centres. We have one of those at CFB Kingston.
Can you give us a bit of an update on the Seamless Canada initiative and how we're supporting our families while their loved ones are deployed through these various resources that we have?
Gen Jonathan Vance
It's a great question, sir.
I'll start off by saying that the longer I've been in the forces and in this job, the more I realize that not only are our families the strength behind the uniform, but they actually in many ways form an integral part of our operational capability. One cannot conduct operations or conceive of operations without being confident that the member is supported and stable and the family is able to continue to function.
The seamless Canada initiative is a function of a wider initiative that we've called “Canadian Forces Base Canada”, where it is clear to me and clear to the senior leadership of the armed forces that we were once entirely designed as a military to be in single-income families that thrived, that lived on bases, that lived largely a subsidized life on bases where your police force, your school, your gas station and your shopping centre were all sort of inside the wire on your base. Decisions were made some time ago for a variety of very good reasons to isolate the forces less—because we were isolated from society at that time, I think—and to be more present in communities. We are and that's good. We benefit from all of what Canadian communities offer.
Nonetheless, the one thing that didn't change was the mobile lifestyle of the military, moving from base to base around the world or across Canada. Though it's delightful to live in communities around the country, it's a challenge to pick up and move, when now we largely live in an economy and lifestyle that takes two incomes to properly raise your family, when it's not as easy to assure yourself of access to a doctor or to the childhood education that your children particularly need, particularly as you transfer between different school systems. There's also the challenge of your paycheque. You move between different tax brackets or different taxation regimes and so on.
It makes for an uneven existence for military families. It adds stress to things that even the best of MFRCs can't solve. We're investing in MFRCs and we desperately need them and we want to continue to improve and strengthen what the MFRCs do.
If I may, I'll just finish. The idea of Seamless Canada and the Canadian Forces Base Canada approach is to find ways to make that experience—where we must move—both the move itself and the experience of arriving somewhere, much less stressful.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
I appreciate your saying that. It's something I've asked before of you and others who have come before the committee and something that I'll continue to ask. I know definitely in Kingston, if you look back 30 years, all of our military lived in one particular area of the city. Now they're totally embedded in the community. Military folks are coaches of children's athletic teams. They're really embedded right into the community, whereas they weren't before. I'm glad to see we're looking at that. I hope we can continue to make progress in making sure we can continue to work on some of the things you've identified as being challenges for our military families.
Gen Jonathan Vance
If the chair will allow me to say this, the idea of living among those communities and with our neighbours is wonderful—the kids are playing hockey and sports with other kids who aren't all necessarily military—but the mobile lifestyle and the exigencies of service haven't changed. We've changed the way we live, but we haven't really changed the stressors. What we have to do is to address those stressors. In my view, it's a clear and present danger to the morale of the armed forces if we don't address them.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, General Vance, for joining us today and giving us a very timely briefing, given everything that's going on at Meech Lake with the coalition ministers of defence talking about the future of Operation Impact.
First and foremost, I want to thank you for your leadership in the Canadian Armed Forces. Please pass on our thanks and gratitude to every member of the Canadian Armed Forces, and not just those involved in Operation Impact, but those in missions around the world and in daily operations right here who are keeping us safe and secure. Please wish them our best for a safe and secure new year, and of course a very merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
You are talking about 250 troops total for the NATO mission. Does that include every Canadian member of the armed forces who is involved in Operation Impact, including the air task force in Kuwait?
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
What would be total number of Canadians involved in Operation Impact and in the NATO mission?
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
That's what I thought.
You talked about the air task force in the context of the Hercs, the Griffon helicopters, the refuelling capabilities, as well as the delivery of materiel to everybody on the ground.
Of course, in the first military action by the Liberal government when it came in, Justin Trudeau pulled all of our CF-18s out of the fight against ISIS. Then he reduced our number of surveillance aircraft by 50% by yanking one of the Aurora aircraft home.
You don't mention it here, but is the other Aurora still in theatre, or has it been brought home as well?
Conservative