National Defence committee  I'll say a few comments, Mr. Chair, before passing it over to Mr. Quinn. First, consultation is extremely important as we go forward with all of these projects to make sure that we have excellent mutual understanding and respect so that there are no surprises. Second, we need

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, the honourable member is absolutely right that we need to tap into that expertise, especially in terms of infrastructure construction. It's very difficult in terms of making that infrastructure durable and sustainable into the future with the changing circumstances rel

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, that is a very difficult question, one that our partners around the world have been wrestling with to determine whether they are predictable, they are rational, they are reasonable. I think, given the nature of the question, I'm going to turn it over to the commander o

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, that question speaks to the threat, and right now, today, we don't see a clear and present threat to our sovereignty—not today, not this week, not next week, not next year. However, in the decades to come, that threat, that tenuous hold that we have on our sovereignty

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, there is a lot in that question to unpack. Firstly, NORAD modernization is moving ahead. It's focused on the air domain for the most part, with investments in sensors to replace the North Warning System specifically with over-the-horizon radar. It's focused on comman

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, yes, absolutely. That's one reason these forward operating locations need to be upgraded, the technical details of which I will pass to the commander of the Canadian air force in the next session. I'll just ask Mr. Quinn if he has anything to add on NORAD.

National Defence committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair, and thank you for this opportunity to discuss the security of Canada's Arctic, the threats we face and the actions that we're taking to address those threats. With me this morning, we have Major-General Peter Scott, chief of staff of Canadian joint opera

Public Safety committee  Thank you for the question. We must continue to focus on the Arctic to protect our sovereignty, not only today, tomorrow and in the coming weeks, but over the next decade. The threats to our sovereignty are not very critical right now, but in the next decade they could get wors

Public Safety committee  Thank you for the question. Yes, certain states, most of them authoritarian and friends or customers of superpowers like Russia and China, are taking the same position as them on the world. Other countries do not wish to join the West or the authoritarian countries. They want t

Public Safety committee  Mr. Chair, I firmly believe that the competitive advantage we have as a country is in being in a group of like-minded friends, allies and partners—well, like-minded or like-minded enough—who share enough in common in terms of values so that they can stand together against aggress

Public Safety committee  Mr. Chair, in my view, that means engaging in the world responsibly, supporting our friends and allies when they need support, doing our part to support them, being ready to support them and being transparent about our intentions. Let's face it, the rules-based international ord

Public Safety committee  Mr. Chair, it's another issue that is near and dear to us as we take a look at our ability to respond. Let me first say that our top priority is protecting Canadians here at home. When the call comes, we shelve everything else to make sure we have the capacity to respond at spee

Public Safety committee  Again, Mr. Chair, that's a great question. One could argue about what other capabilities. Did they actually exist, or should they exist? The other piece you talk about is attacks on our critical infrastructure. As we take a look at deterrence, how do we deter those attacks? One

Public Safety committee  Mr. Chair, it's another item of concern. One of the observations over the course of the pandemic was that our own internal supply chain and internal sustainment system needs work. Currently, as one of our lines of effort, one of the initiatives we're working on is increasing ou

Public Safety committee  Mr. Chair, it's an excellent question. Right now there are no barriers for permanent residents. We are about to make that much more public to attract that segment of our society into our ranks.