National Defence Committee on Jan. 26th, 2026

[Lgen Jamie Speiser-Blanchet]

That's a fair question. In terms of the details of what they will do, we should probably come back to you with specific examples.

[Jeff Kibble, Conservative, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Thank you very much.

Mr. O'Rourke, for two years running, we've seen Chinese coast guard vessels operating in the Arctic. This year, the new class 1 icebreaker Xue Long 2 was shadowed by the Canadian Coast Guard from Japan to the Bering Sea.

Exploring that within the framework of NORAD, can you tell us why they were tasked with shadowing that vessel from Japan to the Bering Sea to the Arctic?

[Neil O'Rourke]

I'll just note that we did not, in fact, shadow the vessel. CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier was in Japan on other business transiting to the Arctic. You had two ships that were essentially going from a similar point A to a similar point B. Then that turned into a story that we were following it.

Should Bill C-12 receive royal assent, we would have the authority to conduct the kinds of operations that include security control. At this point in time we do not, and we did not shadow the vessel.

[Jeff Kibble, Conservative, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Okay, that's fair enough. There were news reports of that, so that's why I was asking.

In terms of surveillance capability, you mentioned that the Coast Guard is looking at changing sensors. Surely, now that we're integrated, there must be a more solid plan as to what capabilities, both for surveillance equipment.... Perhaps you could speak to that. Would that include air integrating into providing air search? Being forward-deployed units, that would be a huge capability.

[Neil O'Rourke]

At this point in time, we are in the midst of doing an assessment of the capability. We do, of course, have capability on all of our ships today. Immediately, any change from the royal assent of Bill C-12 will mean that we will be able to take the information we currently collect and share it for security and defence purposes.

At the same time, we are working with our CAF partners to examine, as an example, what the RCN has on board and what might make sense on our Coast Guard vessels. We are looking at a whole array of things, everything from the new ships that are under construction and whether we want to pivot there, all the way through to our current vessels and whether we may want to retrofit them. There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes. I'm not in a position today to give you specifics.

Air search radar is one of the many technologies currently being assessed and considered.

[Jeff Kibble, Conservative, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

That's fair enough.

[The Chair, Liberal, Charles Sousa]

Thank you, Mr. O'Rourke and Mr. Kibble.

[Jeff Kibble, Conservative, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Charles Sousa]

I'm sensitive to our witnesses who have a prior engagement, so Mr. Watchorn, it's back to you for the last five minutes.

[Tim Watchorn, Liberal, Les Pays-d'en-Haut, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you witnesses for joining us today.

I'd like to talk a little about submarines. Canada will soon be buying submarines. I'd like to know how those submarines will be integrated in the NORAD options.

[Jonathan Quinn]

Thank you for the question.

We unfortunately don't have an able expert on the panel today, but what I would mention in response is that NORAD has a really important maritime warning function. The more platforms that Canada is contributing, whether surface assets or undersurface assets such as submarines, uncrewed systems or sensors, the more we will be contributing to the maritime domain awareness picture, which is critically important to the NORAD maritime warning function.

[Tim Watchorn, Liberal, Les Pays-d'en-Haut, QC]

Thank you.

I'd like to go in a different direction, since Mr. O'Rourke has joined us.

Canada will soon be buying two icebreakers. How will they be used in the NORAD context?

[Neil O'Rourke]

Thank you for the question.

Those ships will give us a different capacity than what we have today. They'll have the capacity to stay in the Far North for 12 months at a time. I'd like to add that there are ongoing discussions with the Inuit, as they use the ice, and that's very important. I think there's a way to conduct activities while protecting the ice those living in the Far North use.

More importantly, we'll have the capacity to reach the polar arctic. Thanks to sensors, both ships will give us a different view of what's going on up there from the perspective we talked about today. They will help us acquire maritime knowledge, which we'll share with our security and defence partners, as we said earlier.

[Tim Watchorn, Liberal, Les Pays-d'en-Haut, QC]

Okay. I have another question for you.

If I understand correctly, the Coast Guard has planes to monitor fisheries, the Far North and the coasts. How will they help us gather more information to ensure our protection in the NORAD context?

[Neil O'Rourke]

Thank you for the question.

You talked about a capacity for which Transport Canada is still responsible. That said, the government has announced that this responsibility would soon be transferred to National Defence and the Canadian Coast Guard. The Dash 8‑400 fleet would allow us to carry out activities that would fulfill the purpose of Bill C‑12, if it's passed. This new capacity would allow National Defence to collect information in the Far North, even this summer.

[Tim Watchorn, Liberal, Les Pays-d'en-Haut, QC]

I would add that this is why it's important that Bill C‑12 be passed as soon as possible. No, I'm not asking you to answer that.

Thank you very much. I understand you have another appointment today, so I'll stop here. Thank you for joining us, and thank you for protecting our country.

[The Chair, Liberal, Charles Sousa]

Thank you very much. I know you have a hard stop.

I appreciate the witnesses coming before us. It was very enlightening.

Folks, I'm going to suspend for a few minutes before we go in camera.

Thank you again, everyone.

[Proceedings continue in camera]