Thank you very much.
Good morning, everyone. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today about the close relationship between the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Coast Guard.
I would like to start by offering my regrets on behalf of Commissioner Thomas, who really wanted to appear today. Unfortunately, she was pulled away.
I am going to share my speaking time with my colleague the Deputy Commissioner of Strategy and Shipbuilding. I will speak about our mandate, the enforcement of the act, as well as search and rescue, and my colleague will speak to you about operations in the Arctic, and collaboration and training.
I will start with the mandate.
Our mandates include a lot of similarities. The Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Coast Guard work very closely together. It's a relationship by design. If you take a look at the mission statements that guide both our organizations, you will see that security features in each of them. The overlap is mutually beneficial; I believe that, especially concerning our search and rescue system—which I'll speak to in a moment—we've become indispensable partners.
Of course, there are fundamental differences between our two organizations.
The navy operates a combat-capable multi-purpose fleet to support Canada's effort to participate in security operations around the world, whereas the Coast Guard operates a multi-purpose civilian fleet that supports economic prosperity while contributing to the safety, accessibility, and security of Canadian waters.
We have a broad footprint, and we are present in many communities. As members of Parliament or any of us who have served at sea know, Canadians depend on the Coast Guard to facilitate the safe movement of goods in Canadian waters.
Enhancing the Coast Guard's security mandate has been a topic at this committee in the past. Previous governments have considered arming the Coast Guard and providing it with the authority to enforce federal laws in Canadian waters.
In 2010-11, we looked very closely at how armed coast guards in the U.S., U.K., Norway and Denmark operate, and discussed whether or not options could be developed to arm the Canadian Coast Guard.
Within the SAR environment, arming our vessels wouldn't make much of a difference. For other operations such as fisheries patrols, drug interdiction, and sovereignty patrols in the Arctic, it would be beneficial. Ultimately, however, the government decides the responsibilities and functions of the Canadian Coast Guard, and we operate within that framework.
Let's talk now about Canadian Coast Guard contributions to security organizations.
The Coast Guard currently acts as an enabler to security organizations. We work with five federal partners—the Navy, Canadian Border Service Agency, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Transport Canada—and contribute to those organizations in three areas: providing ships and helicopters to security and law enforcement agencies; using ship surveillance systems and expertise to identify on-water threats in Canadian waters and approaches; and collaborating with security partners to define priorities, identify gaps, and improve the domestic and international maritime security regime.
We also collaborate with MSOCs, or the Marine Security Operations Centres. Maintaining and strengthening marine security in the Arctic is a highly collaborative and integrated effort led by the government's three marine security operation centres. The MSOCs are staffed with representatives from DND, RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, Transport Canada, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, including the Coast Guard.
On the search and rescue front, the Canadian Coast Guard is the lead organization in the marine component of the federal search and rescue system. Across the country, we aim for a reaction time of 30 minutes, whether we are tasked at noon on Wednesday or at 2 a.m. on Sunday.
Achieving this ambitious target requires close collaboration with the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary and, of course, the Canadian Armed Forces.
When you look at the map and realize that our domain spans 250,000 kilometres of coastline across the three oceans, it's easy to see why the Canadian Coast Guard works so hard to maintain a strong working relationship with its SAR partners.
Going back to our reaction-time target, another important component I haven't mentioned yet is the joint rescue coordination centres in Halifax, Trenton, and Victoria. As the name implies the JRCCs are operated jointly by the Canadian Armed Forces and the Coast Guard personnel and are responsible for SAR monitoring, alerting, and emergency response.
If I'm painting a picture of mutual dependency between our organizations, that's a good thing. It's how the Coast Guard operates, especially when it comes to SAR.
With respect to SAR operations, joint task force commanders in the Atlantic and Pacific have the authority to task any and all resources from the navy, army, and air force.
Navy warships are frequently asked to provide primary SAR readiness when operating in Atlantic waters.
Air force aircraft, particularly the rotary-wing Cormorant and Griffon helicopters and the fixed-wing Buffalo and Auroras or Hercules are also very active within the maritime SAR system.