National Defence committee  At the moment, the north is very inhospitable. If we want to have a real impact in the north, we have to conduct enough exercises and collaborate enough with the other forces that train there and conduct operations there. During the survey campaign in the Arctic that I did, the aim was, for example, to discover where gasoline caches were located, or to determine what runways could take which types of planes.

National Defence committee  I would start by saying that page 81 of “Strong, Secure, Engaged” talks about the concurrency model. You're giving me flashbacks from my previous job. It is an aspiration, but the policy is still valid and it's still an aspiration. What we've had happen in the meantime is what the CDS describes as the need to reconstitute the force, and all the shortages.

National Defence committee  For me, the key enabler would be the communications or IM/IT backbone to cover all the north. It can easily have a dual use in meeting the military requirements while also serving the populations of the north to better have access to information technology.

National Defence committee  I don't think that can be discussed. You would be exposing a vulnerability, or not.

National Defence committee  “Absolute” is a big word. Do we have absolute certainty we see everything that sails? First of all, we know there won't be ships where the ice is, so that limits the area. Most of the detection is through AIS, the identification system for ships, which commercial ships need to have.

National Defence committee  As a Canadian, I have a tolerance of risk in all the aspects of my life. In terms of defence, we have a tolerance for risk. Before February 24, my personal tolerance of risk was much higher, because I thought the President of Russia was a rational actor. With what he is doing in Ukraine, to me he is now an irrational actor.

National Defence committee  When you are part of the NORAD agreement, it's transparent. With the mission assigned to NORAD, I had full access to everything that related to the NORAD mission. From time to time, some staff officer would come and say it's not foreign, especially when there was a new event coming from another command outside NORTHCOM.

National Defence committee  No, our mission is not about.... We don't have a North American defence command right now. We have a North American Aerospace Defense Command with a maritime warning, a maritime aerospace warning, and aerospace control, so we have a vote and we get to find out what's happening in those three mission sets.

National Defence committee  The decision to expand the role of the Canadian Coast Guard or keep it as it is, is really a question of government policy. You undoubtedly know that in the United States, the U.S. Coast Guard is a service branch of the armed forces. That is not the case in Canada. The Canadian Coast Guard deals with fisheries and oceans, in particular, and plays a small law enforcement role.

National Defence committee  Yes, absolutely.

National Defence committee  When you have sovereignty, you have an element of control. You act in your own interest. When you don't have sovereignty over certain items, you depend on others. In the case of the ballistic missile system right now, NORAD is a common-law relationship that is sealed with a NORAD agreement.

National Defence committee  I happen to be a senior mentor for NATO, so I'm in regular contact with NATO. When I was in NORAD, we would say the Canadian Arctic is Canada-U.S. You have to remember that Canada-U.S. is part of NATO. Now we're going to have seven out of eight countries of the Arctic Circle in NATO.

National Defence committee  We are credible in some aspects and not in others. For example, not being part of the anti-missile system costs us in credibility, because it means we are choosing what we want to defend ourselves against, when our defence should be total. On the other hand, we have to understand what is important for us.

National Defence committee  There are existing facilities to receive the fighter planes. Those facilities will not be going away. A majority of the changes to be made relate to the security of the fighter planes, particularly the F-35, which has special needs because of its cutting-edge technology. In an emergency, or if needed, we will take what we already have in place and make arrangements.

National Defence committee  Based on our procurement system, it takes time. If you build up north, it takes time. I would say that you would do one thing per season up north to build a specific system. The idea is to have systems that have persistent surveillance. You could have a combination of manned and unmanned patrol aircraft providing surveillance.