Thank you
I just want to follow up quickly on a couple of things. First of all is RADARSAT and the use of it in Ukraine. I was a member of the government back in 2015, and we had rigorous debate on whether or not to provide RADARSAT images to Ukraine in 2015. We made that decision, and I was proud to be part of it.
In 2016, of course, with the government of the day under Stéphane Dion as foreign minister, the Liberals cancelled that, which was directly seen as a reset or an appeasement of Putin. For six years, we argued from the Conservative side that we should reinstate that, which finally happened under the former minister of national defence, Minister Anand, and something that we applaud. It is necessary to have that intelligence-gathering capability so Ukraine knows what's happening on its doorstep.
When talking about RADARSAT, our understanding is that National Defence has only one satellite dedicated to ISR, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
I ask this to you both. I know, Dr. Steer, that you work directly with the Department of National Defence.
Mr. Byers, you, from a NORAD perspective, have been studying this issue for a long time.
For our own Arctic sovereignty but also for our NORAD relationship, does Canada need to have more dedicated ISR satellites?
I'll start with Dr. Steer and then go to Dr. Byers.