National Defence committee  Yes. It's a change in culture, because with RADARSAT-1, we sort of had it all to ourselves, and now we're learning how to share the sandbox.

National Defence committee  The use of RADARSAT-2 to monitor shipping would be a question best passed to the Department of National Defence, but I can speak to the collaboration that we have with the Department of National Defence. If I'm using RADARSAT-2 in a particular mode to look for sea ice or oil po

National Defence committee  How do I answer that? I look at the Montreal Protocol and things like that and I'm proud to be a Canadian. But that's a personal feeling, and I'm not speaking on behalf of the department.

National Defence committee  I'll just speak to what I know, and that is that first of all there's significant inter-annual variability still forecast despite the declining summer sea ice extent. In addition, the very treacherous and dangerous multi-year ice extent to the north of the archipelago has become

National Defence committee  Under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, it's Environment Canada that provides expert advice to the environmental assessment and regulatory co-management bodies that are established in the north under several federal statutes and modern treaties. Our key regulatory permit

National Defence committee  To clarify, our enforcement branch has a role: the boots on the ground, as it were. We do not have a fleet of ships. The Canadian Coast Guard is our civil fleet. We don't have any airplanes, but Transport Canada has civilian reconnaissance aircraft that we have our employees flyi

National Defence committee  There are missions on all three oceans and the Great Lakes, in fact. In the north they are conducted when the major shipping seasons are there, and in particular they provide tailored support for coast guard operations—for example, when ships are transiting ice-infested waters in

National Defence committee  We work with all the partners as part of the partnership of the Interdepartmental Marine Security Working Group and people who feed into the Transport Canada maritime security operations centres. As an organization, the ice service looks at the Arctic every day, and occasionally

National Defence committee  I won't speak to the need of more icebreakers, but the last remaining sea ice of the multi-year ice in the Arctic hemisphere is projected to be in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and north of it towards the North Pole. Regardless of how fast it's changing now, we're sort of stuck

National Defence committee  I don't have the exact numbers here. We operate many weather stations in the north, both surface-based and upper air sounding, and we can provide that information to the committee very quickly.

National Defence committee  The question is directed to Environment Canada, but Environment Canada supports other agencies doing the response. I believe that question could be directed, for example, to the Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard, who was here, and could be responded to very quickly. We pr

National Defence committee  We manage quite effectively. We provide the day-to-day weather and ice support required by the military and other people doing security operations and conducting business in the north, as well for as the work that's being done by Natural Resources Canada to lay claim to seabed so

National Defence committee  I'm not going to speak about who should be in charge. All of us are answerable, through our ministers, for our mandates. There is very strong collaboration in the north, perhaps more than anywhere else in Canada. The organization I'm responsible for, the Canadian Ice Service, is

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Environment Canada has a mandate to protect the environment, conserve Canada's natural heritage and provide weather and environmental predictions to keep Canadians informed and safe. Environment Canada works to repair the damage of the past, to understa