National Defence committee  The most important investment we need to make today is to invest more in our people. We need to invest more in our soldiers. We need to invest more in reaffirming the morale among our troops. Whenever I meet folks in uniform, I'm continually impressed [Technical difficulty—Edito

National Defence committee  It should be noted that the current agreement between Canada and the United States stems from an exchange of notes in the 1970s, which stated [Inaudible—Editor]. We acknowledge that we don't get along, but we don't want to go any further. We must convince the Americans that this

National Defence committee  My colleague is correct. Most of the information comes from our existing partnerships that are strong, like Five Eyes. We talked a little about the Arctic. One of the things we don't really talk about very much is how states have managed to get information off of the Arctic thr

National Defence committee  Absolutely, Canada needs to invest in the informational awareness domain. We say this as if it's something easy, but it requires investing in communicating more clearly with partners, investing in equipment and investing more in institutions. Canada is placed to be able to have a

National Defence committee  If I might add something, Canada has a really unique opportunity, as it's going to be founding NATO's centre of excellence on climate and security. There still needs to be [Technical difficulty—Editor] going to be a brick and mortar asset. Canada has a role in terms of determinin

National Defence committee  I agree. The cost is going to be quite large. As I said, comparatively, Canada has invested way less in the Arctic than the U.S. and way less than Russia and even some other states, like Sweden and Finland. I think it has a little [Technical difficulty—Editor] but a lot to do wit

National Defence committee  It's a fairly significant compromise. The more personnel we send to the Arctic, the more it will cost. We certainly want to support the people living in this environment, who can provide some information. There are options, but there's also the issue of deterrence. Do we need sol

National Defence committee  Canada must decide how much it wants to participate in the missile defence shield. Right now, given the amendment to NORAD in 2004, Canada still has the right to be consulted. However, when a strong response is needed, the Americans make the decision. It's more or less the same

National Defence committee  Certainly, detection is the first step. NORAD already has that mandate [Technical difficulty—Editor]. Canada would be better protected if it invested more in certain aspects of NORAD, such as in occupying forces or mobile forces. Right now, Canada is acquiring outdated equipment.

National Defence committee  I would point out that almost all of our strategic arms controls, and everything like that, are basically focused on Russia. We have the entry of China in the game in a somewhat credible manner. Most of our architectural thinking about these risks is essentially just looking at R

National Defence committee  For at least the last several years, the UN has increasingly delegated to the European Union and to NATO when it comes to those types of activities. If you look at the peacekeeping activities that the UN is currently doing, we're into about a dozen remaining peacekeeping activiti

National Defence committee  Of course, NATO, as I mentioned, is an extremely important commitment that Canada [Technical difficulty—Editor] has sunk substantial costs into. Right now we're hearing lots of questions about whether we should let Ukraine join NATO or join the EU. What about Finland and Sweden?

National Defence committee  Thank you.

National Defence committee  Yes. I saw that colleagues already talked about missiles. These remain a continuing threat. Canada has one foot in, one foot out with ballistic missile defence. It's problematic functionally, should a territorial missile arrive. There's research from 2018 talking about how NORAD

National Defence committee  Thank you for the honour of this invitation. These past several weeks, as crisis shifted into invasion and now war in Ukraine, ensuring a diversity of voices at these reflections is crucial to ensure that different types of expertise inform future policy-making. I will now turn t