Foreign Vessels Without Transponders Can Travel Undetected Through Canada’s Arctic: Auditor General

Auditor General Karen Hogan during a news conference following the tabling of reports in Ottawa, Canada, on March 25, 2021. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Auditor General Karen Hogan told MPs on a parliamentary committee Thursday that foreign vessels without transponders can travel undetected through Canada’s Arctic because of “gaps” in surveillance technology and resources.

“Does Canada possess the capability to track a vessel that is without a transponder throughout the entire Arctic?” Conservative MP Pat Kelly asked Hogan during a House of Commons national defence committee meeting on Dec. 8.

“That was an identified gap that the government themselves had identified several years ago,” Hogan replied. “In repeated assessments on gaps, they re-identify it, but there’s just no action or solution taken to resolve that gap.”

“There are some gaps in surveillance because we know that certain satellites aren’t meeting the need,” she continued, adding, “If action isn’t taken, there is a significant risk that there will be gaps in surveillance capabilities and the presence in the Arctic in the next decade.”

Hogan wrote in a recent report titled “Arctic Water Surveillance” that a large portion of Canada’s far-north security infrastructure has fallen behind that of other countries due to a lack of investment and technological updates over recent years from the federal government.

Hogan said “long-standing issues” in Canada’s Arctic surveillance security include “incomplete surveillance, insufficient data about vessel traffic in Canada’s Arctic waters, poor means of sharing information on maritime traffic, and outdated equipment.”

“The renewal of vessels, aircraft, satellites, and infrastructure that support monitoring maritime traffic and responding to safety and security incidents has fallen behind to the point where some will likely cease to operate before they can be replaced,” she wrote in the report, which was released on Nov. 15.

Recommendations

She added in the report that the Canadian Coast Guard and Transport Canada could lose their Arctic presence in the near future if “aging icebreakers and patrol aircraft” are not soon replaced.

Hogan told MPs Thursday that the federal departments responsible for updating and maintaining Canada’s Arctic infrastructure, such as National Defence, Transport Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the Canadian Coast Guard, have agreed to recommendations made by her office in the report.

Specifically, the auditor general told these departments they should address maritime domain-awareness gaps, current inabilities to track “non-emitting vessels,” and barriers to sharing information between the departments.

“This is a second call to action quickly so that we don’t run into significant gaps as a country in the Arctic,” Hogan said.

Defence Minister Anita announced in June that the federal government would be investing around $5 billion over the next six years into modernizing Canada’s Arctic surveillance measures.