National Defence committee  We are substantially increasing our surveillance capability. I've talked about some of the measures of doing that from a space-based process. Situational awareness is the foundation of understanding what's going on in the region. We are increasing the rate of activity and the com

National Defence committee  I'm not saying we don't need icebreakers. With the role we've given the Canadian Forces to establish a presence, and the capability coming online with the Arctic offshore patrol ship, we increase activity when the risk goes up.

National Defence committee  I haven't said this country doesn't need icebreaking capability, but that's not going to be resident within the Canadian Forces.

National Defence committee  I'm not aware of any project or any discussions that we're bringing icebreakers online in the Canadian navy.

National Defence committee  I'm not aware of it, sir.

National Defence committee  I am not aware of any project called Polar Breeze.

National Defence committee  No, sir.

National Defence committee  That's under Northern Watch, and I wanted to show that location on the chart I gave you.

National Defence committee  If you see three yellow dots in the centre of the page, it's the middle yellow dot, at Gascoyne Inlet. It's just to the east of Resolute.

National Defence committee  That is a choke point, sir.

National Defence committee  Sir, there are a great many other locations from which we operate. What I wanted to be able to show in that was the major basing lay-down areas from which we support operations. We operate from Goose Bay as well in search and rescue via forward deployment.

National Defence committee  Yes, sir, and we use a lot more than what I'm just showing on this. What I was trying to show was the major basing for the search-and-rescue locations, as well as the forward operating locations that we use in the high Arctic.

National Defence committee  Sir, I suppose the difficulty of understanding the true value of the Arctic and offshore patrol ships as a capability is the intent as to when we will need to exercise presence. When the need for sovereignty, presence, will be greatest is when activity rates go up. The activity r

National Defence committee  We anticipate we will be conducting operations when activity is greatest with those types of assets. We put ships into those waters when we see the greatest amount of activity.

National Defence committee  Sir, I take my orders from the Chief of the Defence Staff, and the Chief of the Defence Staff has told me to conduct more numerous, more complex operations in the Arctic, and we have seen a very substantial increase in both the numbers and the complexity over the last two years.