National Defence committee  The government funding required for these projects, if we do them through Canadian capabilities and through our Canadian technology, which is world-leading, is a significantly lower number than if you entertain buying them from outside the country. But again, these are not funded yet.

National Defence committee  If we do it the proper way, if we define our requirements, properly considering all the inputs from all angles, I believe that with these four or five projects we will have sufficient coverage to provide information in a timely manner, in an accurate manner, in near real time or real time, for proper decision and action, given that we do this right and if we get the funding required.

National Defence committee  My sources for my position are probably a little like yours, which are newspapers and so on, both local and European. Maybe the one light I can add is that I do deal with agencies from Europe, and particularly space agencies in Russia. I can tell you that there's a significant interest by the head of and the rest of the space agency in Russia in cooperating with Canadians to understand the Arctic and to develop the Arctic and, based on the information I read, the resources.

National Defence committee  Do you mean currently, or as we implement these projects?

National Defence committee  I am not really expert in the area, Mr. Bachand, but I can tell you that CP-140 radars have the ability of detecting submarines. Your question is directly related to the identification of the type of submarine. I am not an expert in this area, and there may be Canadian capabilities I'm not aware of.

National Defence committee  You may be referring to a decision that was made back in 2007, if I'm not mistaken, to put on auction a certain number of slots, and that took place. There were Canadian slots put out for auction internationally. I should point out that these were high-altitude communication slots—geosynchronous satellites, as opposed to the earth observation satellites, which fly at a much lower altitude.

National Defence committee  The total program is in the realm of $600 million, and only $200 million has been approved by the previous government. The balance of the money has not been approved by the government; therefore all of the remainder work is not done.

National Defence committee  Our involvement in monitoring the North Pole, the Arctic area, is through Radarsat-1 and Radarsat-2. These are singular spacecraft that have capabilities of not only the North Pole but other areas they cover. The continuation of the radar monitoring with specificity to the Arctic requires the addition of the Radarsat Constellation Mission for a number of reasons.

National Defence committee  We have capabilities on Radarsat-2 to go down to a one-metre resolution. A one-metre resolution, presented in normal language, means that any object that is more than one metre by one metre in surface will be detected by the radar. This is what we call a spotlight, which is the tight lens.

National Defence committee  Should I respond to this? I'm not sure.

National Defence committee  The identification of the ship comes in very handy through matching it with the radar image. One would know whether that ship is permitted to operate in this water or not. Just recently, we participated in certain activities that quickly uncovered some illegal fishing on the coast of Europe.

National Defence committee  Radar capabilities are unique, because they operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They are not obstructed by clouds. They are not obstructed by light--that is, the absence of light. The area of interest, of course, is in darkness most of the year, so you can see the advantage of using radar.

National Defence committee  It is fully operational. It has been fully operational since April of 2008. As I said, it's providing a significant amount of radar imagery, not only to the Canadian government but to other neighbouring governments in the Antarctic as well.

National Defence committee  Correct.

National Defence committee  The initial plan right now is for 2012. These are going to be firmed up, based on the studies we're doing right now. In these projects you typically assess your situation as you go along. That's the idea.