Evidence of meeting #50 for Public Accounts in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was contracts.
A video is available from Parliament.
NDP
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
Thank you for that response. I think it helps me understand what is happening in the north in terms of capacity building.
I think one area that I'll follow up on in the next round will be in relation to the Arctic spill. There was an Arctic spill. What was your folks' response to that and what are the resources that are in deficit to ensure that there's a manageable response? That will be my next question.
Thank you, Chair.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Thank you very much.
Mr. Kram, you have the floor for five minutes.
Conservative
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to resume with Mr. Pelletier about the issue of the vessel that was spotted near Cambridge Bay. I didn't quite understand from your previous answer. Was this vessel monitored from the moment it entered Canada's Arctic waters, or did it travel the whole 1,500 kilometres to Cambridge Bay before it was first noticed?
Commissioner, Canadian Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
It was in Cambridge Bay when it was first noticed and reported to us.
Conservative
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
Can you elaborate on how the vessel was able to travel 1,500 kilometres into our Arctic waters before it was first noticed?
Commissioner, Canadian Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
As I mentioned, Arctic waters are regulated through the NORDREG regulations. That's a mandatory reporting requirement, a regulation from Transport Canada. Only ships more than 350 gross tonnes have to report. Some smaller ships will report on a voluntary basis for safety purposes, and we encourage that. This is everywhere on our site, encouraging people to report, because if we know where they are, if they get in trouble, it would be much easier to get to them as we know where they are.
Once we knew the ship was there, we made sure that we were able to monitor its progress all through the Northwest Passage.
Conservative
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
This particular vessel was spotted by an Inuit monitor near Cambridge Bay. If this particular Inuit monitor had been sick that day, could this vessel have travelled all the way through our Arctic waters without being noticed at all?
Commissioner, Canadian Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
No. We have ships in the summertime. When the ice conditions allow ships to transit, we have our ships there as well to support the community resupply and to be there ready for any intervention such as search and rescue or environmental response. So we would have crossed paths at some point, but that's why we have the Inuit monitoring program, exactly for that purpose. We don't only rely on our assets. We're broadening the network of people who can contribute to marine safety in the Arctic.
Deputy Minister, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
The pilot project I referred to earlier, the coastal marine response network, is intended to have lots of eyes on what's happening. It's beyond the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the caches that we have to be able to actually respond.
Conservative
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
Does either of your departments have any statistics on the number of foreign vessels identified by Inuit monitors versus aircraft or satellites?
Commissioner, Canadian Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Very little. The Kiwi Roa was the first one that I know of. It's very little. I'd say most of the people are very safety-oriented and will report, explorers and so on. Most of the traffic in the Arctic right now is large vessels greater than 350 tonnes. We have a line of sight on all of them.
Conservative
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
When you say “very little”, do you mean you collect very few statistics or the numbers identified are very small?
Commissioner, Canadian Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
The numbers identified are very small.
Conservative
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
Okay. If you could submit a written response to the committee with the actual numbers, I would appreciate that.
Do we have any capabilities of detecting submarines beneath the surface of the water?
Commissioner, Canadian Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
That would be more for DND. The Coast Guard doesn't have that capability.
Conservative
Conservative
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
I would like to shift now to page 16 of the report, which deals with RADARSAT satellites and how that program cannot meet all of the demands of federal organizations for radar imagery. What are the different federal organizations demanding radar imagery from the RADARSAT program?
Commissioner, Canadian Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I can speak for the Coast Guard demand. Basically, all the ice coverage information that we receive through RADARSAT, both for us and for the use of industry, is of great quality. If I look back, years ago we used to have black and white TVs versus HDTVs. That's what we're getting.
I don't know about the condition of the actual satellite, but I have to say that the imagery we receive through Environment and Climate Change Canada is of great use, both for us and for industry.
Conservative
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
The report indicates that we will have a gap of several years between the time the old satellites are retired and the time the new ones come up. Will we fill in that gap with commercial satellite imagery? Will the quality of the images from commercial satellites be as good as from the RADARSAT satellites?
Commissioner, Canadian Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I cannot comment on that. We're getting our imagery from Environment Canada. They would probably be best to answer that.
This is one layer of information. We also have all our ships up north do observation, our helicopters do reconnaissance, and we're starting to use drones more and more as well. That really gives you that local flavour of the broader picture.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Thank you very much.
Next up we have Mr. Fragiskatos.
You have the floor for five minutes.
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to our officials for being here today. Thank you, Mr. Hayes, for your work and that of your colleagues.
My first question is in response to what was jointly offered by officials in response to recommendation 1. In the response, it says, “We will take a risk-based approach to maritime domain awareness in the Arctic”. I suppose this is a conceptual question, but how is “risk-based” defined? What goes into that? What assumptions, what understandings, underpin that?
Deputy Minister, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I'll start and then ask the commissioner to provide more detail.
That would be all of our activities in terms of where the Coast Guard programs happen each year and where the cache is that we referred to, where we really focus on having a Coast Guard Auxiliary and the functionality of the Rankin Inlet station. All of those pieces would be based on where you would expect to see the most activity in terms of marine traffic in general.
Commissioner, Canadian Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Yes, exactly. It depends on the volume of traffic, the area and so on. That's what a risk-based approach comes from. Basically, we've developed a methodology for search and rescue purposes that we call RAMSARD, risk-based analysis methodology for search and rescue delivery, and we're developing the same methodology for environmental response going forward as well. There will be a common approach for various programs.