National Defence committee  It's a great question. At the end of the day, is surveillance about sovereignty? I would pose the question to this committee. It would have been a great question to ask the last group. I know the answer for when I was there. Does the United States of America advise the Governmen

National Defence committee  The challenge becomes when you look at the north very quickly in the Arctic. The Arctic Council is not military at all. It doesn't want to touch it. It doesn't want to talk about it. If you look on their website at all of the subcommittees, you'll see it has nothing to do with th

National Defence committee  Yes. I think it's probably one of the most important questions for this committee: When should the Government of Canada begin to actually do what it needs to do in the north? I don't think it's been addressed or discussed much in the committee. The short answer, given what my c

National Defence committee  It's a great question. I think you could have asked it of the last group that was here, particularly the commander of Joint Task Force North. Part of it in the north would be to increase the capability and support to the Rangers. I've talked with them, and my colleague as well h

National Defence committee  If you look at the AOPS, I think the answer is in what it can do. It cannot operate in the Arctic throughout the entire year. I think that answers your question right there. What happens if a threat surfaces or develops at some time when they're not available? The short answer is

National Defence committee  Thanks for the question, Mr. Chair. It comes back to what the need is. What would we want them to do, from a surveillance perspective? If you just look at it from a logistics perspective and as one small part of what's provided, that would be one area. I think if you go into t

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, thank you very much for the invitation to address the committee. As the last commander of Canada Command specifically responsible for Canada's Arctic from a military perspective, I will focus my comments today on what the government could do to practically address thr

National Defence committee  Yes. Maybe I can tell you very quickly that every submarine or whale that we noted in Canada's north—because it's a fact that they both have the same type of movement in the water—was spotted by a ranger, not by regular force military personnel or a drone or whatever. They have r

National Defence committee  All of them.

National Defence committee  You're welcome.

National Defence committee  Yes it is, given the importance of what's going on vis-à-vis China. I have seen it myself, sitting at NORAD headquarters, and that was 12 years ago. Even at that time, I would have said yes, so the short answer is yes.

National Defence committee  Clearly, the number one investment needs to be people. How many years does it take to have a sergeant with 20 years of experience? It takes 20 years. I can always buy equipment off the shelf. People need to be the number one priority.

National Defence committee  Put somebody in charge is the short answer. That's the dilemma when all the partners come to the table.... I've been there. I co-chaired the Government of Canada's emergency preparedness committee with at least 30 or 40 different partners. At the end of the day, when no one's i

National Defence committee  I think it's my cat. She wants to be fed.

National Defence committee  If you were to take a look at the Arctic Council and what other countries have vis-à-vis ranger-type organizations, you would see that we are the only one that has that type of organization that we've given that responsibility to. That's helping to safeguard our north, so clearly