Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. There's a group at Transport Canada whose responsibility is transportation system data analytics. That's one of their major roles. It's multi-modal. Obviously, it's done for all the different domains because it's obviously integral to our having sufficient information to look at the economic side of our mandate, as opposed to the regulatory side.

Foreign Affairs committee  I just wanted to add that, in addition to all that, in the last year, we have developed a set of guidelines, in concert with both the local Inuit and the cruise ships association. These are voluntary guidelines, but they were very much at the behest of industry, who wanted support from government and local communities to understand better what they needed to do.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. I'll just add with respect to the Arctic shipping corridor, for example, which is something in which we're deeply engaged with ITK, as the commissioner says, on a very regular basis. Similarly, the initiative we're doing with respect to trying to identify marine domain awareness systems is done completely with local communities and all Inuit hunters and fishers, because there's no point in developing an app that's not completely embedded in community needs.

Foreign Affairs committee  I guess I can respond to that. We definitely are making use of an RPAS device in the Arctic that we were piloting this year. We've also made use of it in other parts of Canada. It's been quite helpful from a Transport Canada perspective. We use these devices to surveil for pollution.

Foreign Affairs committee  Our role, of course, is quite a bit less in terms of actual operations, but under the oceans protection plan, we did get some funding to be able to do vessel inspection in the Arctic. We have been able to dramatically increase the availability of our inspectors up north. They spend large chunks of the season up north inspecting various vessels at various facilities like Baffinland and in various ports as well.

Foreign Affairs committee  As I'm sure you're more than well aware, there have been some challenges with respect to Churchill in the last several years, particularly with respect to the railroad. Unfortunately, a tragic accident happened there over the weekend that Transport's been very engaged in looking at.

Foreign Affairs committee  Interestingly, internationally, fees are not charged for transiting through another nation's waters. The right of innocent passage in international law allows, with some restrictions, vessels to transit through other countries' waters. Fees tend to be applied when you enter a port or require a service from whatever country.

Foreign Affairs committee  That's good. NORDREG, which is the northern Canada traffic services zone regulations, are Transport Canada regulations but are, as the commissioner was implying, run, administered, and operated by the Coast Guard. They have been in place since 1977. At that time, it was a voluntary ship reporting system, but as of July 1, 2010, that became a mandatory or obligatory reporting system.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Chair. Along with my colleagues, Commissioner Hutchinson and Major-General Seymour, I appreciate the opportunity to address the committee about some aspects of Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic as they relate to maritime transportation. As global commerce in the Arctic has increased, northern resource development has become more and more important to Canada, and it will continue to do so.

Fisheries committee  Can you speak to some of that, Luc?

Fisheries committee  That would be speculation on my part, but I assume they're trying to maximize their income and minimize their expenses. That would be the logical construct, but that's speculation, because I haven't talked to a lot of them directly about that particular issue.

Fisheries committee  It's of marine safety.

Fisheries committee  It was 367 as of last week, by chance. It just so happens that I had a discussion about inspector numbers yesterday. It has gone up significantly. It has been higher than that, though; based on memory It was as high as 384 a couple of years ago, but it was as low as the low 300s, also within the last couple of years.

Fisheries committee  We're increasingly active in the Arctic Ocean. As part of the oceans protection plan, a government initiative announced a year and a half ago, which is a multi-department $1.5-million new initiative, we received extra funding to be able to increase our inspection ability in the north, so we have an additional five individuals.

Fisheries committee  That is correct, if the vessel is small enough.