Thank you once again, Madam Chair.
I'll move right to Mr. Hayes.
I'm going to ask you a final question, but I have a preamble again.
On page 14, 6.37 reads, “We found significant risks that there will be gaps in Canada's surveillance, patrol, and presence in the Arctic in the coming decade as aging equipment reaches the end of its useful service life before replacement systems become available.” I'll list them. There are five: “Weaknesses in satellite surveillance capabilities”, “Icebreakers reaching the end of their useful lives”, “Further delays in procuring Arctic and offshore patrol ships” or AOPS, “Patrol aircraft reaching the end of their useful lives” and “Inadequate infrastructure for patrol equipment”. These are just the equipment aspects of the shortfalls.
I'm going to turn to page 16, which talks about satellite surveillance and capabilities. I'd say it's top of mind for a lot of Canadians. They saw a spy balloon float over the Yukon and into the U.S. and various other devices of which we're not sure where they came from. With that lack of capacity to even keep track of that kind of stuff in our Arctic airspace.... I'll go to page 16 and 6.44, which reads, “We found that current Canadian satellite-based surveillance capabilities do not meet the needs of National Defence”. That's now. They were going into a phase.
I'll read farther down. We have it good now. It's going to get worse. Paragraph 6.46 reads, “The government acknowledges that it will take another decade for the Canadian Space Agency to launch a successor to the RADARSAT Constellation Mission and that an interruption of satellite earth-observation services past 2026 is therefore a significant risk.” On the following page, 6.47 talks about these not becoming operational until 2035.
We're heading into an era of almost a 10-year gap of surveillance of our own airspace at a time when we're seeing threats like really never before—unprecedented. This is all from a minister who says, “Hey, everything is great,” and a Prime Minister who says the Arctic is strategically important. Well, prove it then, Mr. Prime Minister. I don't see it. I think even our northern premiers are voicing their concerns about Putin and the threats there and ambitions of other countries around the world. Many countries have Arctic policies now.
I'm going to finish with the conclusion and the question. It's coming, don't worry.
On the conclusion page, paragraph 6.67—and this is your office—reads:
We concluded that the federal organizations we audited—Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard, Environment and Climate Change Canada, National Defence, and Transport Canada—had not taken the action required to build the maritime domain awareness they collectively needed to respond to safety and security risks associated with increasing vessel traffic in Arctic waters. While these organizations had identified gaps in maritime domain awareness, they had not taken sufficient measures to address them.
Lastly, it says, “Furthermore, the existing satellite services and infrastructure did not provide the capacity that the federal organizations needed to perform surveillance of Arctic waters.” That's now. “Delays in the renewal of satellites, ships, and aircraft risks compromising the presence of these organizations in Arctic waters.”
This is my question to you, Mr. Hayes: Does the lack of equipment and lack of attention by this current government, and the lack of action as a result...? Are our Arctic sovereignty and security compromised?