National Defence committee  Well, if there's incentive, why are we here? When it comes to construction, I've looked at building a new hangar for the MRTT here. We have a five-year to eight-year window while the Inuvik runway is being lengthened and extended. I would have a hangar ready for the MRTT in fiv

National Defence committee  Real Property Operations does all the maintenance on all the bases and handles all the contracts for the Canadian Armed Forces. They do not answer directly to the CDS, the chief of the defence staff, but to the deputy minister of defence, so the route they take is that if NORAD n

National Defence committee  I don't know. I'm not familiar with Ottawa. What I am familiar with is that both air and army attachés—and this speaks volumes—came here. My last conversation with the air attaché was on November 10. They are very concerned as to what's going to happen in Inuvik. That's why the U

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  Sure. You can ask Senator Dawn Anderson. The Chinese were up to look at the marine infrastructure in Tuktoyaktuk. That was the jumping-off point for all the offshore drilling that happened in the Beaufort Sea and in all of the offshore around Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. We had the

National Defence committee  We would hope to be able to provide the leading edge of defence. The expanded NORAD capability is one thing, but we still need the fighter jets. We still need the infrastructure on the leading edge in order to handle and support all of this equipment, and right now we don't have

National Defence committee  In Inuvik we already have one fibre optic line, and there's a second one coming up the Dempster Highway, so in terms of communications, we're very fortunate. As it pertains to land transport, roads are very difficult to build and will take a long time. One of the key transportat

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. I'm an extremely fortunate individual. My hangar and property are situated on bedrock, which is approximately 25 feet below the surface, so I'm a very lucky individual. Some of the other areas are not that fortunate. I think what we have to do is to

National Defence committee  Yes, I have, sir.

National Defence committee  Reality.

National Defence committee  I don't want to say political ideology. One of the problems that we face, though, is that people don't understand the length of time that it takes to build anything here. Second, do the people in the local communities have the capability and capacity? Do they have the training?

National Defence committee  I'm not sure what you mean by gatekeepers. People in the Arctic who want security clearances have to meet the same requirements as southern contractors for security clearances. Our crime rates in the Arctic—I'll only speak for the Inuvik region—are significantly higher with some

National Defence committee  Yes, there is. Right now we have the Inuvik runways being extended. For the next five years, the new air-to-air refueller cannot land here. It's actually five to eight years. Even if it lands, the future means that there's no hangarage and there's insufficient fuel for this airc

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, thank you very much. Members of Parliament, Inuvik is the most active NORAD base in Canada. I speak to you from the same ramp and hangar from which the CC-130 tactical air-to-air refueller operated 439 times, and ILS supported the RCAF and the United States Air Force