National Defence committee  Thanks for the question. On the importance of the north, thank you for giving me the chance to clarify, because I didn't want in any way to downplay it. In fact, I think we're all cognizant of the rising importance of the north. With climate change, conditions are changing and there's going to be more activity.

National Defence committee  If I might, Mr. Chairman, thank you. Back to the broader issue of what the threats to North America are and how you defend, it becomes this amalgam of all the government departments. Some of the threats would be environmental. Some of them are going to be illegal migration, and all of those things.

National Defence committee  Perhaps I'll begin, Mr. Chair, and then I'll ask my colleagues to supplement.

National Defence committee  Absolutely. The government's position was taken in 2005, and it wasn't cost related. It was that we would not participate in ballistic missile defence, and that's the extant position, as General Rousseau said. Since that time the missile defence issue, in terms of who could have capability, has changed a bit, but the government's position is very clear: since 2005 we are not part of ballistic missile defence.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, perhaps I could add a brief comment. Thanks again for that question. I'd just like to broaden the context a tad, and Artur may want to add to this. We tend to talk a little bit more about cyberincidents than attacks. Again, I work at the Department of National Defence, and I don't want to sound like I'm not concerned about defence.

National Defence committee  I would like to add a few comments on the subject. Seamlessness of whole-of-government cooperation in cyber is absolutely essential, so to your question about cooperating and sharing information, according to our mandates and in the appropriate ways we share. We share in terms of identifying what the threats are in terms of bringing our common expertise to the table in terms of dealing with the responses.

National Defence committee  Sure. Thank you. If I might say a supplementary word, I think the question points to the very interesting dynamic, and Artur talked about this a bit. When you look at the defence of North America and the threats to North America, so many of them are not military. It's illegal migration.

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. Over the last number of years, the government has systematically and assiduously invested in the Arctic and in our capabilities, obviously, from the Canadian armed forces perspective, defence, but also whole of government. I will cite just a few examples.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, thank you for the invitation to appear and for the work that you're undertaking with your study on the defence and security of North America. I was pleased to have been able to appear last year to speak to the committee about NORAD and I am pleased to be here again.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I probably didn't give enough emphasis to this, but I can't tell you the seriousness with which NATO allies are discussing the impact of the global economic situation. The impact on defence budgets is serious. A lot of this work around smart defence and smarter defence and wringing every cent out of one's defence dollar is what's compelling the discussions around NATO.

National Defence committee  Thanks very much. The Mediterranean dialogue—which encompasses Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia—was elevated to partnership status in 2004. The Istanbul cooperation initiative was designed to reach out to other countries, principally the Gulf countries.

National Defence committee  Brian, do you want to talk about the air policing initiative?

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're right in saying that the U.S. at the moment covers 21.7% of the NATO budget. It's a major contributor. You might want to get somebody from the U.S. here to talk about U.S. policy, because I don't want to interpret it for them. Their shift in emphasis from the Atlantic to the Pacific is a shift in focus and intensity.

National Defence committee  I think that's a very good question, and I think that's a lot of the debate at the moment—what will we be able to do, what will we be able to afford? I don't want to speak for the United States. You might want to get somebody from the U.S. embassy or from Washington in here to talk to these issues.

National Defence committee  In fact, I'm afraid that I'm not in a position to answer that question. I just don't have the knowledge and expertise. Sorry.