Evidence of meeting #163 for Public Safety and National Security in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cybersecurity.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Senior Advisor Cybersecurity, As an Individual
In my opinion, one of the problems with managing security incidents is that the companies are starting to communicate more of this type of information. I think it is still a little early.
To answer your question, I think it is a little of everything right now.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Attacks against states do take place and are fairly serious even though they are not the only attacks. What do you think of the KesKuun project that the other witnesses talked about?
Senior Advisor Cybersecurity, As an Individual
I think the project is interesting. There is one thing they are absolutely right about, and that is that with respect to cybersecurity, availability is very important. In my opinion, it is important that we maintain our sovereignty in Canada, that we have our own fibre for telecommunications.
I am just hearing about this project. From a cybersecurity point of view, I fully support this type of project and approach.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
That's good.
I will ask the other witnesses some questions.
Thank you.
I'd like to continue with Mr. Gull on the staging of the project. You said it's already in place in Alaska for this Quintillion project. It's already built in Alaska. What is the rollout process here?
It's in Alaska and we're trying to be a non-U.S. network. Can you explain that a bit more?
Advisor, Tawich Development Corporation
The fibre that's being connected now is in service. When the line goes to Japan and to England, it's going to stay in international waters. There are going to be two pipelines that are not going into the U.S. Those are the two pipelines we're interested in, to stay at an international level. The U.S. won't be connected to that line.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Do you have any idea when Quintillion expects to finish construction of the third stage?
Advisor, Tawich Development Corporation
It all depends on our winters. The Northwest Passage still freezes. Their concern, too, is the timing of putting that line through the Northwest Passage. That's why they're doing that last. There are certain places where it's very shallow and with the icebergs they really have to take their time and study that part.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
When you talk about getting the Quintillion line connected to Canada via James Bay to have full network sovereignty, is there any way we can connect it to the west and east coasts as well? Can we connect it as a domestic network and not just an international network for us? Do you have any thoughts on that?
Advisor, Tawich Development Corporation
Yes, that could be done.
There is a project for a line to go up to Yellowknife. That line could be connected on that side also. That's why our recommendation is basically to have a Canadian team develop that project in the north. I think this should be a recommendation of this committee.
Liberal
Advisor, Tawich Development Corporation
Yes. The priority of Tawich is, for sure, the development of northern Quebec.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Sorry, but the priority of this committee is the cybersecurity. From that angle, I think it is fascinating to have this solution. Not only that, but to have it brought forward by the Cree first nation is really interesting for all of us to see.
I have only a few seconds left, I believe.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
If Mr. Eglinski is going to have any time at all, you'll probably have to be really brief.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
I'll say one more thing to Mr. Jarry, and then I'll give it Mr. Eglinski. That's security by design.
Senior Advisor Cybersecurity, As an Individual
What do I think about security by design?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
You don't have any minutes at all.
It's a good question. We'll have to work on the answer.
We'll go to Mr. Eglinski for the final five minutes.
Conservative
Jim Eglinski Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Thank you.
I'd like to thank our witnesses for being here today.
I'll start with this line you're proposing through the High Arctic and over to China. It's going to Japan? Good. All right.
Why would you have gone along the Arctic and not crossed along the bottom of Hudson Bay and then come across Canada, when there's been a lot of talk of a transportation corridor along the northern provinces and the bottom of the Northwest Territories, and connect it in...? It seems that there's a lot of extra work to go up toward the top and around, when you could tie into the bottom of Alaska and then follow the Aleutians out. It's the same with connecting to your European....
Was there a rationale for wanting to go so much higher up?
Advisor, Tawich Development Corporation
There was a rationale around it. You can see it when you take a plane. All the flights that go from Toronto or Montreal to Asia basically go by the north. If you look at the distances, it's shorter to go by the north than by the south of Canada. That's where you gain the latency; there's a technical reason that is related to the business case. That's how you would attract the financial institution investor.
That's the first reason. The second reason is that we are for sure in the north, so we're pushing the development of the north; that's the mandate of Tawich. It's thus an interest of ours, but I think it's an interest of Canadians as a whole, especially given the discussion you saw in the news involving our neighbours in the U.S. who want to assume sovereignty over Canada.
I think it's very important that if you buy that line, you would mark with a substantial development the north of Canada. If you don't occupy the territory, at one point you can lose sovereignty over it.
Conservative
Jim Eglinski Conservative Yellowhead, AB
I'm glad to hear that coming from the business community, because it is a concern. It's a concern with our caucus that the sovereignty of the north must be looked after. Thank you for planning that in your strategy.
You talk about the power you need—some parts here say 300 and then 200 megawatts. Is that to feed the power to the line all the way across, or are you going to have to add more power as it continues? That's quite a distance that we're shooting, from your part of the country right around the top.
Advisor, Tawich Development Corporation
The main point for the power from the La Grande dams is to feed the data centres. It's the data centres that consume a lot of energy because of the size of these data centres. It doesn't take too many data centres to consume 200 megawatts, even though we have all the natural cooling systems in the north, which reduce the cost of operating data centres. I visited data centres in Silicon Valley, and their main issue is the cost of cooling their computers.
Conservative
Jim Eglinski Conservative Yellowhead, AB
I take it from what you're saying here that your data centres will be located in your traditional territorial lands and then you'll be feeding that data back into Canada and other locations.
Advisor, Tawich Development Corporation
To answer your question, yes, that's why there will be opportunity to connect some remote communities from which you'll get some power to do the repeaters. A design has been done to have a couple of communities feeding the line in the north of Canada. This is an occasion to feed. It could also be a military base that might be used to allocate the thing. I think it's a very interesting project.