“Our government agrees with the findings and recommendations in the report and will take steps to address them,” Alghabra told reporters on Parliament Hill on Nov. 15. “We are committed to working with our partners to address long-standing gaps in Arctic maritime domain awareness.”
Auditor General Karen Hogan’s report says the federal government has neglected to take “the required action to address long‑standing gaps affecting its surveillance of Canada’s Arctic waters” which now hinders attempts by the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to detect possible foreign activity in the area.
“The long‑standing issues include incomplete surveillance, insufficient data about vessel traffic in Canada’s Arctic waters, poor means of sharing information on maritime traffic, and outdated equipment,” says the auditor general’s report, released on Nov. 15.
The auditor general also said that some equipment and infrastructure used to detect and respond to potential threats have become so outdated that they “will likely cease to operate before they can be replaced.”
“The Canadian Coast Guard and Transport Canada risk losing presence in Arctic waters as their aging icebreakers and patrol aircraft near the end of their service lives and are likely to be retired before a new fleet can be launched,” reads the report.
‘Very Limited’ Surveillance
When asked by reporters about his level of concern for the state of surveillance in Canada’s Arctic, Alghabra downplayed concerns, saying improvements are “ongoing.”“It’s not accurate to say that it’s wide open and it’s not being monitored,” Alghabra replied. “It is being monitored.”
“The auditor general highlighted areas of improvement,” he continued, adding, “I can talk about some of the initiatives that are ongoing and will be happening next year.”
Alghabra said the federal government will be investing in new Arctic assets and infrastructure, but didn’t specify how much.
“The North Warning System is very limited in its ability to actually detect the current threat presented by Russia right now and China in the future,” Pelletier said on Nov. 1.
Pelletier added that the North Warning System is in urgent need of modernization, as it was “designed back in the early 1980s” and wouldn’t necessarily pick up on incursions from Canada’s western coast.
“In the decades to come, that threat, that tenuous hold that we have on our sovereignty at the extremities of this nation, is going to come under increasing challenge,” Eyre told the national defence committee on Oct. 18.
