National Defence committee  They are a part of the whole system. I don't want to stray away from that kind of response, but they are not the only component—

National Defence committee  —to that particular capability, but they certainly help enable us to do that.

National Defence committee  There are a couple in the northern portions of that, all the way through.

National Defence committee  Absolutely.

National Defence committee  Right now they have the .303 Enfield. That is the rifle they carry primarily for predator control. They provide that predator control response role whenever our other defence team members, whether it's the Canadian army, air force, or whoever, are on the ground.

National Defence committee  No, that's provided. The .303 rifle is issued to the individual ranger.

National Defence committee  The reserves are part of the defence team and are a federal response, not a provincial response capability. They're a layering of capability. In many cases, where there's an immediate federal response unit from the regular force and/or the reserve Arctic response company group,

National Defence committee  I'm not in a position to say whether it would be valid or not; it would all be part of what we really want the Rangers to conduct. I would go back to my comment that we consider them already trained and capable to operate. The basic tenet of a Canadian ranger is to observe and

National Defence committee  The Arctic response company group provides what we call the sustainment capability for the immediate response unit, which is a regular force tasking for each of our joint task forces across the country, the regional task forces. For example, there's normally a battalion that's on

National Defence committee  Absolutely. As I indicated before, we very rarely ever go to northern or isolated regions without utilizing the Rangers for training and/or conduct of operations.

National Defence committee  We do not utilize the Rangers in a tactical scenario. We use the whole of defence team approach, providing the actual tactical capability. They are not trained, nor are they equipped. The ranger rifle is not for use as a tactical weapon; it is for predator control and self-protec

National Defence committee  I see us probably utilizing them in a more continued manner, similar to what we're doing now, to help enable the existing defence team to go into the north. We've continued to increase our presence over the last three to five years. As I said, we don't go into isolated regions

National Defence committee  The operations providing surveillance and sovereignty come under the over-watch, if you will, of the Canadian Joint Operations Command. I would defer to General Coates, who I think may, in fact, be talking about surveillance and ground search and rescue. From the overall perspec

National Defence committee  Absolutely. Sir, with regard to the overall role for any federal government presence within a community, and in this case a reserve or even a ranger presence, the commanding officer of a reserve unit, or in the case of the Rangers, has the ability to provide life-or-limb assist

National Defence committee  I think you hit the nail on the head in trying to say this is a whole defence team approach. You talked about all the constituent parts. This has been an ongoing increasing level of activity, both from a training...and not just in the winter; it's in the summer as well, in auster