National Defence committee  Bonjour and good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members. My name is Neil O'Rourke, and I'm the assistant commissioner for the Arctic region for the Canadian Coast Guard. My colleague and I appreciate the opportunity to come here today to appear before this committee on beh

National Defence committee  The Canadian Coast Guard operates in almost any and all weather conditions during the Arctic shipping season. This year, the Coast Guard is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Over the years, the Coast Guard has witnessed many changes in the north, partly due to climate change, a

National Defence committee  I apologize for that.

National Defence committee  Indeed, the criticality of these icebreakers cannot be understated. As outlined in the recently published Office of the Auditor General report on the surveillance of Arctic waters, over the past 30 years, the number of voyages in Canadian Arctic waters has more than tripled, due

National Defence committee  With regard specifically to the Indo-Pacific strategy, it is not something that the Coast Guard has been very involved in. I would need to confirm with some of my counterparts in headquarters to see if we have been engaged. I am responsible for all of the operations in the north

National Defence committee  With regard to our international collaboration, we do in fact work extensively with the other Arctic nations. Up until the beginning of 2022, when there was the Russian reinvasion of Ukraine, we worked with a total of eight Arctic nations—so seven others, including ourselves and

National Defence committee  Maybe I'll start with the collaboration. We work very closely with other federal departments, as I think you're aware, for search and rescue. We work closely with the Canadian Forces as well. What I want to focus on is our work with Inuit specifically in the north. We've made si

National Defence committee  Yes. I know there's a lot of conversation, of course, here as well as in the north about building multi-use infrastructure. We're certainly on that page. I know in talking with our partners at National Defence and the Canadian Forces, there are possibly opportunities as there ar

National Defence committee  I'll touch on that. There's a lot of stuff in there. The first thing I'll say about climate change is that things are changing. There sometimes is a misperception that melting ice means there's a much longer navigation season. What we're seeing actually is increased risk, becaus

National Defence committee  The national fleet has 19 icebreakers. The number of icebreakers in operation depends on the month or week. As a rule, we try as much as possible to maintain ships in the spring and fall, when there is no ice on the St. Lawrence, in southern Canada and in the north.

National Defence committee  I'm going to have to send you the information about the year 2022. I am an expert on our Arctic activities; the 19 icebreakers are part of the national program and the number in service varies from year to year. If you want the numbers for this year, I don't have them, but we c

National Defence committee  It's much less than that.

National Defence committee  Once again, I will talk about the Arctic. In our view, the vessels currently available are sufficient to deliver our current programs in the north.

National Defence committee  In principle, it starts with icebreaking. Every year there are between 50 and 80 icebreaking requests in the north, which require a number of ships. Normally, four or five ships are needed. In addition, our platform helps scientists in Canada, in our own department and elsewhere;

National Defence committee  Thank you for your question. As you know, the Coast Guard plays an important security role in the Arctic. However, we are not a military organization as such. Obviously, we work closely with the Canadian Forces and the RCMP. In answer to your question, I cannot necessarily answe