National Defence Committee on April 29th, 2024

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

That's interesting. That is good news and we're happy to hear it.

As to coordination with various federal departments, we know of the National Space Council in the United States, chaired by Kamala Harris. However, Canada has no equivalent body, which could be chaired by the Prime Minister and ensure coordination between the federal government and industry. Would such an entity be useful for the purposes of the Canadian Space Agency?

[Maja Djukic]

That's an excellent question.

Canadian industry and industry associations have been asking for better federal coordination on space issues. Just in the last budget, the government announced the creation of the Canadian version of a National Space Council. It will be a whole-of-government coordination mechanism that will ensure coordination on issues crosscutting civil, commercial and defence space domains.

You'll appreciate that this is a recent decision, and we're still working through the implementation details. Those will be forthcoming shortly.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you. In response to two questions, we heard two pieces of good news. That makes us happy as members of the Standing Committee on National Defence, since it doesn't occur that often.

We touched upon the RADARSAT mission and mentioned the possibility that there may be no data collected between now and when the satellites are replaced. How does Canada collaborate with allied countries to obtain information? What is Canada able to offer allied countries in return for this information? What are the dynamics in this context?

[Guennadi Kroupnik]

Those are excellent questions and I thank you for them.

We are currently considering at least four potential solutions.

First of all, there is open data. We are promoting within the government family the wide use of free and open data, which is available more and more.

The second element is commercial data. There are international and Canadian capabilities that we are very interested in.

The third element is a sovereign system—the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, RADARSAT-2 and the upcoming RADARSAT+—which addresses that element.

The fourth element is international collaboration. We have very close relationships with our allies. We have very close relationships with the EU and the European Space Agency. We have an arrangement for contingency planning with the European Space Agency. For example, about a year ago, the European Union lost the Sentinel-1B satellite. They required our support, and we provided support to them with respect to that. Reciprocally we expect that if something happens on our side, they will provide us with support.

We are working very closely with Japan's space agency, JAXA. We have a memorandum of understanding. We have a very active exchange of RADARSAT Constellation data for data from ALOS-2 and the upcoming ALOS-4 that will provide Japanese satellite advanced synthetic aperture radar data over Canada.

We have excellent relationships with our closest partners at NASA. In a few months NASA, in partnership with India, is going to launch a NISAR mission. This will have great coverage at six-metre resolution by L-Band SAR over Canada. We made an agreement that we will provide RADARSAT Constellation data over Greenland. In exchange, we'll get NISAR data in Canada.

We continue discussions with a number of other like-minded nations with which we hope to have relationships as productive as the one I just mentioned.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Normandin.

Thank you for all that good news. Apparently not everything is broken.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Ms. Mathyssen, you have six minutes.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

First off, the United Nations has been working on space agreements and protocols around space disarmament for years. The U.S., Russia and China are investing in the militarization of space. Last week, the United Nations resolution against nuclear weapons in space was vetoed by Russia.

Can you talk about the status and the state of space disarmament and the work that Canada is doing or needs to do and how we need to invest in that to ensure that our diplomatic efforts are recognized in this regard to progress further?

[Maja Djukic]

Mr. Chair, this question falls within the responsibility of Global Affairs Canada.

The Canadian Space Agency is engaged in multilateral fora. We do participate in the work of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. However, on the issue of disarmament, our support is for our Global Affairs Canada and DND colleagues who lead that engagement.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Okay.

In response to Ms. Normandin's questions, you spoke about the dual use.

Certainly in terms of co-operation internationally, space is that new frontier, the next frontier, where it is possible to further the relationships we have internationally in ways that we haven't been able to on earth, for various reasons. In terms of how we build that peace, that sharing of information that you were talking about, I think of it in terms of search and rescue and climate change information. How can Canada be a leader in that regard to further build those relationships? How necessary is that?

[Guennadi Kroupnik]

We are very proud of the fact that Canada was one of the founding members of the international charter on space and major disasters. That organization recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Today it brings together 17 international agencies. Canada, the European Space Agency and the French space agency were founding members of this organization. This organization provides, free of charge, earth observation data anywhere in the world when a major disaster hits. We are very active contributors to this organization, with both RADARSAT-2 and RADARSAT Constellation Mission data provided to calls of that organization.

We are very proud that because of the implementation of fast-tasking capabilities on the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, the RADARSAT Constellation Mission data is among the first being delivered to disaster mitigation teams anywhere in the world.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Is that only with allies?

[Guennadi Kroupnik]

No. It's anywhere in the world.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

If somebody else is at risk, some other country that we're not necessarily on friendly terms with, this is an opportunity for us to give them some information to save lives. It comes down to that—the saving of human lives.

[Guennadi Kroupnik]

That is absolutely correct.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

That's the goal.

[Guennadi Kroupnik]

We are partnering with United Nations organizations. Almost every country has so-called authorized users. Those are usually analogous to our government organizations responsible for public safety and disaster mitigation. They can activate the charter any time a major disaster happens.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

You stated that Canada was a founder and one of the first in this field. We often need recommendations for committees going forward. Are there things that Canada can do now to expand on that, to make that stronger, to be a leader in that?

[Guennadi Kroupnik]

I think we are already a leader. We are just finishing our leadership of this organization. This organization's leadership is rotated every six months. We are just finishing our six months of leading this organization with EUMETSAT, the European meteorological agency. I believe our reputation within the organization is very high.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

This would be similar to something like the Arctic Council. The conflicts that occur on earth and away from those organizations—do they hinder? Have you seen any sort of hindrance of your work in that regard, as we kind of saw with the Arctic Council and Russia?

[Maja Djukic]

Maybe I can take that one.

Currently, as I mentioned, we have active collaboration on the international space station that involves Russia. To this day, the main objective of all the partners who are involved in the program is to focus on maintaining the safety of the program, the safety of the station and the safety of the crew. We have not seen issues so far, but in all fairness, the participants on the space station depend heavily on each other. That really drives the interactions.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Ms. Mathyssen.

Colleagues, we have 25 minutes' worth of questions and 20 minutes' worth of time.

I'll start with Mr. Allison for four minutes.

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to our guests who are here today.

As you're looking at what's going on around the world in terms of space, can you give us a status update on what's going on with the Chinese space station? Do you have any details for us on where they're at and what's going on with them?

[Maja Djukic]

I would not be able to offer any details on that topic.

[Guennadi Kroupnik]

We don't have close partnership or collaboration with China. We are focusing on work with our allies and partners.