National Defence committee  Do you want to try that?

National Defence committee  I don't know. But I would say that with respect to specific interdictions and enforcement regarding those interdictions, really the RCMP would be the better organization to pose those specific questions to. They would have the answers.

National Defence committee  Those are all good questions.

National Defence committee  All right, I'll try, and hopefully Greg will help me out. Let me start with your last question, very quickly. We are not procurement experts, so we'll try to respond and if we can get back to you with details, we will.

National Defence committee  I'm going to let Greg speak about the marine security working group, and I will jump very quickly to the Canada-U.S. relations. I think that's going to answer some of your questions. Our relationship with the U.S. and the U.S. Coast Guard in conducting our mandate is very close and collaborative and very productive, whether it's in the north or anywhere else, whether it's environmental responses or security.

National Defence committee  Here's another example of a very close seamless relationship with the Canadian Armed Forces. We of course have a very close relationship, a partner relationship, with them on search and rescue. I co-chair a SAR committee with Major-General Coates. We do operations in support of them and in collaboration with them.

National Defence committee  First of all, they're not based in the north.

National Defence committee  You're totally correct that our vessels and our crew are not armed, with the exception of two vessels on our east coast, stationed in St. John's, which are armed with, I believe it's a 50-millimetre calibre—

National Defence committee  Thank you. So those particular armed vessels operate in very specialized specific circumstances under the Coastal Fisheries Protection Act, the Fisheries Act, and the Criminal Code, and their activities are conducted within that context by our fishery officers and fishery protection officers under those pieces of legislation.

National Defence committee  The role of coast guards around the world and the scope of their authorities are different. The one we're typically aware of and knowledgeable about, as we see on television, is the U.S. Coast Guard for instance that is armed and has a much broader mandate. The approach in Canada is to have a multidisciplinary approach with various departments involved.

National Defence committee  We have studied this in the past and have not been provided any direction to change our current approach, so we are currently delivering the mandate as we are directed to do.

National Defence committee  They operate there for a good chunk of the year, from June to November. I mentioned in my opening statement that we have a combination of six icebreakers of various sizes that will break ice and provide services and be available for various services such as environmental response or SAR operations throughout this period.

National Defence committee  It will be my pleasure. That includes escorting commercial and military shipping through sea ice to deliver essential supplies to residents of the North, a search and rescue capability, and a first-response role in incidents of pollution. It also includes our platforms supporting scientific work, such as collecting scientific data at sea, hydrographic charting, mapping Canada's continental shelf and search work, such as the work that led to the discovery of one of the ships of the Franklin expedition.

National Defence committee  That's correct.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Nadia Bouffard. I’m the acting deputy commissioner of operations in the Canadian Coast Guard. I'm joined by Greg Lick, who is the director general of operations. We wish to thank you for the opportunity to speak about the Canadian Coast Guard and its role in maritime security.