Public Safety committee  I think far too often we look at Arctic security through a single lens. We examine, for instance, the proliferation of Russian military bases and missile infrastructure in Siberia and we extrapolate that to mean a threat to the North American Arctic. We have to look at Arctic reg

Public Safety committee  The DEW Line and the NWS were put into place at a time of very different strategic context. Both of them were looking for Russian bombers, simply put. The DEW Line was quickly made obsolete by the arrival of ICBMs, but the NWS was brought in as an upgrade with the advent of Russi

Public Safety committee  We have been developing the subsea systems since the 1970s at least. How effective they are remains classified and beyond my pay grade. On the satellite networks that you're talking about, we do have a fairly good satellite imaging capability through our RADARSAT system. You a

Public Safety committee  Canada actually has a long history of maritime surveillance capability. We were one of the pioneers in the underwater autonomous vehicle sector. Halifax and several technology start-ups and more established companies here have quite a bit of very useful technology that is dual pu

Public Safety committee  Absolutely. If you listen to the Ukrainian fighters and to what the Ukrainian army is saying on the ground when they're asked what concerns them most, the answer is almost always air power. Looking forward at a great-power conflict, air power is crucial. Canada absolutely needs t

Public Safety committee  Absolutely. The question is asked about how much more money the Canadian military needs. I think that question somewhat misses the point. Money is obviously very important, but the ability to spend it effectively is just as important, if not more so. Canada has a very long bipar

Public Safety committee  Absolutely I believe that the 2% should be our minimum target. I think we do need to be a little more specific in directing those funds towards the most significant state-based threats. That means taking a clear-eyed look at who future great-power adversaries may be—in this case,

Public Safety committee  I can't give you any specific numbers. That's a degree of complexity that I won't get into, but historically the Canadian army has received the lion's share of Canadian defence spending. There is probably a rationale for adjusting that to provide more consideration for the navy a

Public Safety committee  Well, surveillance in the north is not up to the challenge of detecting modern incoming conventional weapons. Russian hypersonic weapons, for instance, cannot be detected with any accuracy with the north warning system. I believe you heard from Dr. Huebert on this question yester

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to be here and take part in these important discussions. My research and expertise lie in the field of Arctic defence, safety and security, and it's in that area that I would like to offer some comments. Following Russia's invasion of Ukrai

Foreign Affairs committee  We've tried that exact thing, actually. In 1987-88, during negotiations with the Americans, the then Department of External Affairs tried precisely that, to establish a bilateral agreement in which the Americans would recognize Canadian sovereignty on a non-precedent basis. Diffe

Foreign Affairs committee  The activities we need to be taking right now are not a significant break from what we've been doing, frankly, since the 1970s at least. It's important to recognize a certain subtlety to the phrase “use it or lose it”. Simple presence in the Arctic does absolutely nothing to butt

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. That's a very good question. Canadian Arctic sovereignty, as we understand the dispute, is a question of ownership over the Northwest Passage. That is essentially what is being challenged. No one is challenging Canadian ownership of the land or anything of that natur

Foreign Affairs committee  Our regulations right now, with respect to the environment in particular, are more stringent than those in place at the IMO. Canada does demand more, and we have different penalties from what are prescribed by international law, which is something we feel is essential, given the

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here, if only digitally. I would like to take a few minutes today to share my thoughts on Canada's relationship with two of the states most commonly tied to contemporary debates on Arctic sovereignty. The first is our traditional partn