National Defence Committee on March 22nd, 2016

[Stephen Burt]

That's immediate.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

—please include over the next 10 years the trending that you're seeing.

[Stephen Burt]

In terms of the next 10 years, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is something that we are watching closely. The evolution of the use of chemical weapons in the Middle East with the Islamic State is something that is of great concern. The proliferation of nuclear weapons in South Asia is something that we watch, not because we think they are threat to us specifically, but because the proliferation of those weapons is a grave concern.

From my perspective, ballistic missile proliferation really focuses in on North Korea in terms of states that we worry about. Other state actors have an established ballistic missile capability or, for that matter, cruise missile capability—Russia and China—but we don't see the intent there. As I said in my opening remarks, you have to watch intent like a hawk, essentially, which is where I'm going on this, because intent can change. They have an established capability. It is a grave concern. However, we see no reason to believe that in the next 10 years they would form a threat to Canada.

Then there's cyber, and I think it's the only other one that I have to touch on as well. Cyber is an ever-present one. It's often difficult to tell who the actors are behind those attacks. It's something that affects not just our ability to protect the information we have and that we gather in order to inform decision-making here in government, but even our ability to operate. Over the next 10 years, I think this is something that we're going to have to build into our systems in a much more robust and thorough way than we have up to this point, in order to make sure that we are well defended on that front.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

What cyber-warfare representation, if any, does Canada have at NORAD?

[Stephen Burt]

Cyber-warfare representation at NORAD...?

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

The U.S. has a cyber command.

[Stephen Burt]

Right.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Is there a Canadian element there?

[Stephen Burt]

Their cyber command is not within NORAD.

[RAdm Scott Bishop]

It's not within NORAD.

We are very interested in cyber. We do have some liaison officers and exchange officers working in U.S. cyber command. This is primarily because we understand the importance of cyber as a warfare domain going into the future, and we are actively trying to build our knowledge base and expertise base of cyber operations. Cyber operations are really a domain that militaries will be expected to operate in to conduct military operations in the future.

Our cyber posture is focused on defensive operations: protecting our information and war-fighting networks to be able to achieve a mission. I fully expect that cyber will be a key item of discussion in the upcoming policy review.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

At this point in time, there is no cyber element related to NORAD. There's no representation.

[RAdm Scott Bishop]

I don't believe that we have people participating in a cyber cell inside NORAD. I'm sure that U.S northern command is working on cyber issues, and we do work closely with U.S. northern command, but to your question, yes.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Do we have representation in terms of Canada's critical infrastructure at NORAD so that when they see what's going on they can pinpoint areas of concern in real time?

[RAdm Scott Bishop]

Yes, NORAD does consider critical infrastructure, but that would be a subject I couldn't go into in a lot of detail due to security classifications.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Okay, but do we have representation there? The last time you were there, we did not.

[RAdm Scott Bishop]

In the NORAD command structure, we have a fully integrated role with the United States. It's a binational command, so it is a joint Canada-U.S. command.

Canada is an equal partner in decisions that are made in NORAD.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

In the plans and priorities, one of the items listed in the estimates is cyber-defence. I saw that there was a call for proposals looking for input into this.

How far has Canada progressed on this front?

[RAdm Scott Bishop]

On cyber-defence...?

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

From a military standpoint.

[RAdm Scott Bishop]

It's important to point out that in Canada, obviously the lead for cyber is the Department of Public Safety.

On the military side, as I said, for some time the military has been aware that cyber is a very important part of conducting military operations and has sought to include cyber in its planning. In our Canadian joint operations command, we have a nascent cell that is looking at cyber issues and taking account of cyber issues in the planning of military operations before we actually launch those ops. Cyber is incorporated into operations right from the very beginning of planning.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

That's your time.

The next question goes to Mr. Garrison.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I thank the witnesses for appearing here today.

In the analysis that you presented regarding threats, as somebody who is from the west coast and represents a naval riding, there seems to be less attention on naval affairs than perhaps on air affairs, and maybe that's a response to the threats.

I'm certainly happy to see the maritime warning part included in NORAD. I just wonder if any of you would like to comment on the naval capacity of Canada as part of the defence of North America, as opposed to the air defence, which we seem to be mostly focused on by talking about NORAD.

I know I'm asking a rear-admiral.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[RAdm Scott Bishop]

It is a question that I can't duck as an admiral. It's a really good question.

The NORAD agreement was amended a few years ago to incorporate maritime warning in its mandate, looking at the maritime approaches in North America. It's a very important mission set.

I would assure you that NORAD pays a significant amount of attention to the maritime approaches to North America, as we do in the Canadian Armed Forces. We're very concerned about what is happening in our waters, on all three of our coasts. We work with the Americans to create a common picture of what is going on in our continental approaches. We use naval assets, as you would imagine, but we also make extensive use of space-based surveillance systems, including Canada's RADARSAT constellation mission.

It is a very important aspect of NORAD, and obviously for Canada and the Canadian Forces, we want to make sure we understand who's in our waters and what they're doing.

[Stephen Burt]

I would add, as well, that from an intelligence perspective, we do spend a lot of time—I didn't touch on it in my remarks—focusing on maritime naval developments in other nations where we think there's the potential they will affect us, whether that's close to home or in places like the South China Sea or the Mediterranean.