National Defence committee  We do work closely with the rangers. I would note, however, that for the most part, they may be utilized a bit more in ground search and rescue than in maritime search and rescue. That being said, we work with them in exercise. As an example, last September we had an exercise in

National Defence committee  Thank you for your question. There needs to be continued support from the government, so that the icebreakers are built on the planned construction schedule. Certainly the risk associated with delays in delivery of the ships continues to be assessed. My recommendation to the go

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think, from our perspective, the system here in Canada is working well. In any kind of organization, if you will, if you have multiple things that are all part of the same organization, I'm sure there can be opportunities but there will also be challenges

National Defence committee  We have one permanent station in Rankin Inlet now that's open seasonally. Then we have our headquarters in Yellowknife. We have a base in Hay River. We have our MCTS centre in Iqaluit. Those are all permanent.

National Defence committee  I think certainly.... I mean, more SAR stations across the Arctic obviously will require investment. I think from our standpoint, and working specifically with Inuit, Coast Guard and Inuit are very much aligned that to improve the system in the north, that would be the right plac

National Defence committee  They don't all. Typically, most of the vessels we send north do. The Terry Fox, as an example, does not have helicopter capability, and neither do some of the interim icebreakers. This year, as an example, six of the seven icebreakers that were in the north had a helicopter on bo

National Defence committee  You're correct on that about that particular ship. What we would typically do is probably utilize a helicopter from one of our other ships. We also have a couple of shore-based helicopters that are often up there doing maintenance work, so we would look at using one of the other

National Defence committee  In fact, they're neither. They're beyond that. Their coast guard and their military are integrated. When I talk about the Danish defence force's Joint Arctic Command—which is essentially the presence they have in Greenland—they're responsible for everything the Canadian Forces wo

National Defence committee  What I've found in my experience working for the Coast Guard is that every coast guard in the world is different and they all line up differently. They all have different functions. Specifically in the Arctic, Sweden's is also a civilian force. The Norwegian Coast Guard, for exa

National Defence committee  As Mr. Wight mentioned, for years we have been working on the renewal of our fleet and the plan itself. From our side, we are very happy that the decision has been made to invest funds to make the necessary purchases to ensure the long-term stability of our fleet. Certainly, the

National Defence committee  Thank you for your question. I will answer it from a search and rescue perspective. I think I'm going to go back a little bit to an answer I gave in the last hour. One of the recommendations is about VHF radio communication systems. We need more capacity in the Arctic to commun

National Defence committee  On the technology side, there are a number of ways to do this, but I won't go into that. In principle, the VHF radio communication system is a bit like the 9‑1‑1 system. If there is an emergency, you dial 9‑1‑1. When you're at sea, it's channel 16. Without a VHF radio communicat

National Defence committee  I'm not sure I can tell you about that specific system, and whether we're going to utilize it or how. More generally, what I can say is that, for both our Marine Communications and Traffic Services centre in Iqaluit, which monitors all the traffic, and those JRCCs, which essent

National Defence committee  I think that when we look at search and rescue specifically, I'm not sure there is a benefit one way or the other. I appreciate that, Mr. Chair, and I think that from a policy perspective what I would say is simply that the Coast Guard delivers a lot of different services—envir

National Defence committee  In the Arctic, we don't have specific patrols, per se, one of our ships comes from the west coast, and is essentially always going through Alaskan waters coming from the west, The other six come from the east. Our ships are deployed based on icebreaking requirements first and fo