National Defence committee  The major exercises that have increased take place, usually, around the August timeframe, summertime, when the waters are open, as opposed to the dead of winter, when there's 24-hour darkness and very cold temperatures. I think that's the area where we probably lack a little bit more capability; it's to operate in those extreme environments.

National Defence committee  I haven't done a comparison of something on the east coast of Baffin. It might be easier to do the search and rescue out of Trenton, or possibly Comox--not Comox, but Greenwood.

National Defence committee  No, I haven't done that exercise, sir.

National Defence committee  I was aware of the MAJAID capabilities and the assets based out of Trenton. Tentage equipment would be let out of aircraft or parachuted to the site of a crash. There's also been work done with the U.S. as well as with the Russians in terms of joint cooperation for Arctic search and rescue.

National Defence committee  I think it will add significantly to the capabilities we have.

National Defence committee  I'm not aware of the details of that, sir. I'm not in on the secrets of the gods anymore.

National Defence committee  I'm not aware of the space capability.

National Defence committee  The recommendation I made a number of years ago was to station, on sort of a temporary basis, a C-130 in Yellowknife. The search and rescue requiring a C-130 on the west coast would originate out of Winnipeg. If you were to launch from Yellowknife, it would be about the same flight time to reach the west coast.

National Defence committee  Yes, sir, I believe we need the capability to monitor subsurface activity. We did have a program back in 1987 that was going to put SOSUS equipment in the three choke points of the Arctic. You can basically see them on the slide, the two entry points of the yellow line and the red line near Iqaluit.

National Defence committee  I don't know, sir, if the navy made that recommendation and how the change came about. As I mentioned in my presentation, it's important that somebody guard the gates in the north. Unfortunately, the coast guard is a bit of a misnomer because they don't guard the coast. It's not part of their mission; they're not funded for it and they're not trained for it.

National Defence committee  Unfortunately, I have a lot of topics to cover during my seven minutes, but I want to say that, in my opinion, satellite observation is the best way to monitor Canada's north. I made that recommendation in the document that I wrote in 2001, a copy of which was given to you. In fact, I recommended that photos of the entry points into Canada's Arctic be taken every day using RADARSAT-2.

National Defence committee  I would agree with you, sir, on that, and I would suggest that two locations, Yellowknife and Whitehorse, would probably have the population base to support small units. The advantage of using populations from those two centres is that they are very familiar with the weather conditions.

National Defence committee  I was happy when I heard we were going to build ships that have the capability to operate in ice-infested waters. Our naval vessels today cannot operate in the Arctic in any kind of ice-infested water, and because they don't have a double hull, they would break Canadian law if they were to be deployed in the high Arctic.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity to address your committee on the matter of Canadian Forces resources in terms of Arctic sovereignty. This quote from Wikipedia is probably a good representation of the perception that many people at large have of Canada's ability and willingness to defend its Arctic sovereignty.