Of course. It is quite possible that I won't be able to read out my statement in full if I go more slowly. I could always provide more information to the members of the committee during the round of questions.
We are currently seeing two significant trends that weren't there previously. Firstly, competition between the major powers has intensified, as we can see by the new high-intensity war in Europe. Secondly, there have been upheavals brought about by climate change, and we have seen more domestic operations led by the Canadian Armed Forces who have provided support to civilian authorities.
These two trends are not recent. The major powers' military forces have been modernizing their technology for quite a while now, and obviously climate change is nothing new. However, the co‑existence of both trends creates a threat that is forcing Canada to redirect much more of its strategic attention and its resources to its home base, and by that I mean on Canadian soil.
Historically, Canada has always had an advanced vision of security, meaning that it would intervene abroad to prevent conflicts from coming to it. Currently, these interventions are taking place on Canadian soil. This has transformed Canada's strategic thought.
I believe that the Canadian government should consider two main threats.
Firstly, climate change has led to more marine traffic in Canadian inland waters and in its exclusive economic zone, whether it be for fishing, transportation, tourism, research or military operations, and the major revisionist powers will take advantage of that.
The second threat is the strategic ambitions of revisionist states. Not only are they developing their conventional capacity to reach Canada, with tactical nuclear weapons, as mentioned earlier, as well as hypersonic missiles, submarines and drones, but they are also using strategies that fall under the threshold of armed conflict. They are investing in critical infrastructure, such as the mining industry, including rare metals. These sectors play an important role in Canada's economic development but are very vulnerable.
While we welcome recent investments in Canada's defence capabilities as per the 2017 policy, there are still many gaps. One of the main gaps is the absence of planning, whether budgetary or operational, for replacing the fleet of Canadian submarines. These are essential to the security of Canadian waters. Whether we consider that the Northwest Passage is in Canadian or international waters, we still need that capacity. The fact that we are not planning to replace the fleet leads us to believe that we will lose that defence capacity. If we had to invest in a new fleet of nuclear submarines, as Australia is doing, the cost would be so high that we would have to use the money budgeted for other Canadian defence priority items.
I believe we should review the Canadian Armed Forces' approach in matters of defence by looking at Norway and Sweden and what they call total defence. This is a whole-of-society approach based on the resiliency of all society stakeholders, whether they be civilians, industrial and commercial actors or the military, in order to better resist in times of crisis. This approach is also based on a high and low intensity deterrent capacity that mobilizes the entire population in a multidimensional conflict, rather than stand-alone operations based on conventional and non-conventional defence.
In conclusion, you might find it odd that I am talking about threats that are not immediate, whereas there is a considerably significant threat of the war in Ukraine escalating horizontally or vertically. This is what my colleague Mr. Robert Huebert was alluding to earlier. However, the threats that I have been describing are not insignificant, given that we would have to invest right now to protect ourselves. You know as well as I do that developing defence capacity and military procurement in Canada is not something that can be done quickly. In order to gain the capacity to defend Canada and its territory in 10 or 15 years, we have to make those difficult choices today.