From a military perspective, our job is to consider the worst-case scenario and be prepared, but take a look at the deep roots historically in Russia that focus on the Arctic; they're very much an Arctic nation. They have a considerable portion of their population up north with cities of one million-plus in the Arctic, which pales in comparison to our 115,000-plus in the Canadian Arctic. It's a vastly different story.
The Arctic is important to their economic future. It's not surprising to me that Russia would invest in security capability in a region that is so fundamentally important to the future of their economy.
They've staked a lot on their oil capacity. There's oil in the north. They've staked a lot on having their version of the Northwest Passage as the route of choice for international operators, companies, and countries that wish to use the Arctic to reduce that transshipment time.
In order to do that, you put search and rescue assets in place; you put security measures in place; you put informational measures in place. All of those things arguably could be done to accomplish an economic objective rather than some nefarious security objective. I can't speak for the Government of Canada, but I think you need to understand both sides of that and apply that kind of thinking to how we choose to operate in Canada.
Our view is more co-operative. Through the Arctic Council and the work that we do in the Arctic Council to have a dialogue about the Arctic, we see it as a place where we need to come together and recognize that multiple nations will be up there, with the increasing openness because of global warming. It's a very interesting conversation.