National Defence committee  I don't think we have the capacity to re-engage in UN peace operations, that's for sure. If you look at the order of priority, defending Canada should come first. It never has, because we wanted, rather, to contribute to international security through NATO operations since its beginning in the late 1990s, and we just dismissed UN peace operations afterwards.

National Defence committee  I would add that from Canada's point of view, it is a good follower in NATO. Its strategic objective is to contribute more than it is to have any meaningful impact, I think, politically or strategically. We've seen this in the desire simply to have a seat at the table instead of having any concrete impact with respect to its own national interest.

National Defence committee  I think we have to look at this issue based on timelines. In the short term, the Canadian Arctic will essentially remain much colder than the European Arctic, for example. Therefore, navigational capacities are lesser and the season is much shorter than in other regions, such as the Arctic zone above Russia.

National Defence committee  I agree that Canada has been grossly underinvesting in drones. We can see how these drones have been proving useful in the war in Ukraine right now, with the Iranian drones provided to Russia being deployed in swarms. Canada is also underinvesting in other aspects of this capacity, i.e., air defence against surveillance and strike drones that are being used by the Russians and other foreign powers.

National Defence committee  To my mind, these are not two distinct issues. If certain zones are considered inland waters, we have the duty to protect all vessels that are present there. If vessels do not ask for our permission to come into those zones, we have to intercept them. In order to be able to do so, we need some sort of constabulary force.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, I will be speaking in French and will be using my notes to help the interpreters with their work. According to conventional wisdom, we should consider the security environment in the Arctic as being relatively safe, with no signs of the turbulence that we see in other regions of the world, which are much more threatened by conflicts and where opportunities for cooperation are not as favourable.

National Defence committee  Of course. It is quite possible that I won't be able to read out my statement in full if I go more slowly. I could always provide more information to the members of the committee during the round of questions. We are currently seeing two significant trends that weren't there previously.