National Defence committee  If I may, without necessarily referring back to the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, I can say that we're using all the tools we have at hand. We have mentioned the CTAT and the fact that we're taking this capability internationally to conduct that type of training. We conduct our own type of training here in Kingston and we're going to be conducting training for children in armed conflict, and women, peace and security, and those are all going to be done internationally and domestically.

National Defence committee  I have something quickly on that. You talked about the UN. The UN has identified these communications and the mandate, understanding weaknesses within the system. There are two reports that I would recommend to the panel to review, the HIPPO report and the Cruz report. They're both very useful and enlightening about the weaknesses in UN operations and what they're doing to focus on improving those.

National Defence committee  If I could just add on, there are areas we can improve. One of the areas is within NATO, continuing to advocate for women, peace, and security— and inclusive security. Canada has a voice, in fact, a leadership voice, as you probably heard when you were speaking with Ambassador Buck, in NATO, and it is well respected always, but specifically when we talk about advocating for the development of women, peace, and security roles and the importance of gender in military operations.

National Defence committee  Right. That you can trust. Those are the comments that I would make at this point. None of us are munitions rocket experts or intelligence experts able to provide you with an assessment on whether or not those claims are accurate.

National Defence committee  That's a very interesting question. Thank you very much for that. First of all, I will start off by saying that there's an election coming up in Russia. Let's use that as some context for what comes out of Moscow. Secondly, I would point out that ballistic missile defence is not advertised to counter the significant and long-term developed capabilities of China and Russia.

National Defence committee  At the time, around the 2010 period, there had been a couple of requests for the use of NATO AWACS, for example, for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and in support of operations in Afghanistan. The NATO system was complex enough that it was not able to provide those capabilities when Canada asked, and so as a result of that, the view was that it wasn't a performing program from Canadians' perspective.

National Defence committee  That's correct, yes, to bring the AWACS over to help control the air security situation. As a result of that, the decision was then made to cease the program, to a savings of about $60 million.

National Defence committee  I think the key response is that it's great to have additional funding, but I think more importantly, it's important to have Canada as an ally in the AWACS program. The centre of gravity of NATO is coming together as an alliance, as alliance cohesion, and this is one additional contributor to that cohesion, having all members of NATO contributing to this program.

National Defence committee  I'd like to just add that the process for requesting AWACS support from NATO has changed, so the challenges that we had eight years ago have been mitigated.

National Defence committee  That's correct.

National Defence committee  Sure, I can start. You've highlighted one key area, that the alliance is looking to respond to an increasingly tense situation. As of 2014, with the invasion into Ukraine-Crimea, we've seen the largest increase in forces associated with NATO since the Cold War. It's in direct response to the threats that Russia has posed to international peace and security.

National Defence committee  I can say that NATO is committed to creating the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons, and that's stated. Canada, along with co-sponsors Germany and the Netherlands—not necessarily within the NATO context—is promoting the work of the fissile material cut-off treaty, and that's really all I would have to say on that.

National Defence committee  Sure, I'd be happy to. From the NATO perspective, it's going to be Canada's contribution to the support and operations of the AWACS program to the tune of $17 million to $20 million, I think. We're still in the negotiations of exactly how much that will be. It is a fair-share contribution from Canadians' perspective to a NATO program that we haven't participated in for a while.

National Defence committee  Yes, certainly. It was during a time of fiscal restraint, and the Government of Canada was looking for areas to cut programs that were not viewed as being productive.

National Defence committee  If I may add to that with a couple of tangible examples, the efforts we have under way in Ukraine, a country that is experiencing hybrid warfare, is an excellent opportunity for us to learn from an actual operational situation. We're working with Ukrainians in that area. Something even more tangible within the NATO context is the fact that Real-Admiral Scott Bishop is going to be the 2018 chair of the NATO Military Intelligence Committee.