National Defence Committee on Oct. 30th, 2025

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

I'm talking about the people.

[Marc Mes]

The people as such, our crew, are Government of Canada employees. They would fall under the same insurance that anyone else would have. If there were to be an accident at 222 Nepean—

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

Thank you. It's the public service plan they're covered under.

[Marc Mes]

That's correct.

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

Has thought been given to providing the military SISIP type of insurance plan, because they may be involved in an act of war or civil insurrection that would exclude them from regular insurance through PSP?

[Marc Mes]

We wouldn't be involved in any act of war. The Coast Guard's rules of engagement are that if there is anything, we leave.

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

An attack by a drug runner would not be considered an act of war in Canada.

[Marc Mes]

No.

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

What about the pensions for the Coast Guard? Again, it's going to be collaborating with the military on surveillance, but not all adversaries see it that way. They now consider coast guards, even through you're unarmed, to be dual-purpose.

If that situation arises, how are our people, who may undergo some physical injuries, maybe career-ending injuries, protected in the way that a military member would be should that circumstance avail itself?

[Marc Mes]

I don't know if I necessarily agree with the assertion of dual purpose. The security mandate is an additional and complementary mandate, and it leverages all of the Coast Guard assets on the water to be able to provide an additional service through the collection and receiving and sharing of information. As such, it's not an added risk to our Coast Guard employees.

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

In the worst-case scenario, if there's a coastal military attack and the Coast Guard must engage through collaboration and interoperability with the military, how are your assets and your personnel designated so that the civilian maritime emergency that happens concurrently or a fishing vessel sinking would have the top response time they would have had if they had not been consumed by a national security situation?

[Marc Mes]

To be very honest with you, our mandate continues. That is search and rescue, environmental response, and aids to navigation. If there is a search and rescue, there are international conventions whereby every vessel has to respond. We are not going to be in a situation in which we are going to be tasked in a conflict.

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

Are you expecting some of the members of the Coast Guard to leave if they're being folded into DND, regardless of whether they will be given a combat role?

[Marc Mes]

I suspect we will have no people leaving. I'll be very honest with you: We were very clear that we are not being militarized; we are not carrying a law enforcement role. Our crews and all of our seagoing personnel are very comfortable with that.

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

The current Coast Guard cutters and patrol vessels don't possess any defensive capabilities from enemy combatants, as the U.S. Coast Guard does. Are any plans under way to arm cutters or provide them with extra equipment to be collaborative and surveil and be interoperative with the Canadian Armed Forces?

[Andy Smith]

That's an open-ended question. In terms of equipment to militarize the ships, the answer is no. For either mission fits or upgrades to new builds in terms of enhancing the sensor suite and the secure communications packages, it's yes.

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

How long will that take, and will our ships be out of commission?

[The Chair, Liberal, Charles Sousa]

We're running out of time. I'm sorry, Ms. Gallant.

Ms. Romanado, you have up to five minutes.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Through you, I'd like to thank the witnesses for being here.

There seems to be some confusion here. I'm a very visual person, so maybe I'll help map it out for everyone.

Earlier, you mentioned that the reporting structure is that the commissioner reports to the deputy minister of National Defence. That's very clear when I'm looking at the organization chart of National Defence: There's the chief of the defence staff and there's the deputy minister of National Defence. The Coast Guard is not falling under the chief of the defence staff.

It's very clear to me that the Coast Guard is a civilian operation that augments Canada's capability with respect to maritime awareness and is an augmentation of what we can offer as well in NORAD. Is that correct?

I see it is. Thank you.

You provided us with a little briefing document, and I want to read out something in it, because I don't think Canadians realize just how incredible the Canadian Coast Guard is.

We talked earlier about punching above our weight. Your briefing document says this:

On an average day, the Canadian Coast Guard monitors 4,498 vessel movements, coordinates 18 search and rescue responses, assists 47 people, and saves 13 lives—

We're talking about an average day. It goes on:

—carries out 11 fisheries patrols and 11 scientific surveys with partners, surveys 3.5 km of navigational waters, and receives 6 pollution event calls

Again, this is on an average day.

This work will continue. This work is not changing. What we're doing now, through those sensors, is adding domain awareness capability in the Arctic and in our three oceans. Is that an accurate assessment of the new integration into the Department of National Defence?

[Marc Mes]

That is exactly it. It's the government seeing the benefit of leveraging the Coast Guard's large presence on the water. It's a mission that we'll be able to do that is complementary to what we are currently mandated to do.

Thank you for recognizing the work of the Coast Guard. As we have mentioned, it's an organization of only 6,000 people, 3,000 of them seagoing, and we're able to help provide these services to Canadians.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

My colleague MP Idlout wanted to ask a question. I know she didn't have the opportunity because it required unanimous consent, but she brought up the question about search and rescue in Nunavut.

Could you answer that? What is the current situation with respect to search and rescue capabilities for Nunavut?

[Marc Mes]

Search and rescue in the Arctic is becoming more and more predominant as the climate changes. Since 2015, our support for Coast Guard auxiliaries has increased from 15 to 41 Coast Guard auxiliary units. We have established a Rankin Inlet response unit, a critical Arctic piece, and we continue to assess on a daily basis, through what we call risk assessments, all of the areas across the country on the need to either augment or collaborate.

Lastly, it's an engagement with Inuit and first nations whereby they're included in that, and the auxiliary is a really good example. We continue to look at the needs in all areas of Canada from an assessment perspective of whether or not they need to be further augmented.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

In terms of the Arctic, we do have a neighbour to the north of us, and I'm not talking about Russia. I'm talking about the United States and Alaska.

Given the augmented capability in domain awareness, could you elaborate a little on how we could be assisting in NORAD defence by using some of the technology and capabilities that the Coast Guard brings to the table?

[Marc Mes]

We work very collaboratively with our U.S. Coast Guard colleagues, as we do with our navy colleagues. We exercise together, and we work together. We own and work on the maritime environment from an information-sharing perspective, and we are sharing that with our key domestic defence, security and intelligence partners, but that is also then provided with some of our partners that have concerns in the Arctic—the U.S. is one, and Norway and Denmark. There's a collective effort under the Arctic Coast Guard Forum, ensuring that we are ready and able to respond to situations.

Having a greater awareness of what's on the water helps the Coast Guard prepare for situations that we have to respond to. It doesn't necessarily have to be a security perspective; it also can be from a safety perspective, and we talk about cruise ships or an environmental response and how we work together.

From a NORAD and a maritime warning perspective, it's being able to provide the information that can help support that effort as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Charles Sousa]

Thank you, Deputy Commissioners, for your testimony and for being here today to enlighten us in terms of the integration of the Coast Guard and the Department of National Defence, as well as the added facilities in regard to what you already do.

With that, on behalf of our committee, I thank you for your service, for your fleet and for all those who participate in keeping us safe. Up in the north, you're providing that surveillance and enabling Canada to be well represented.

I'm going to suspend for a moment to move to the second half of our session, with regard to NORAD modernization.