National Defence committee  Thank you for your question. Cyber operations by the Canadian Armed Forces may be conducted as long as they receive a mandate to do so during a mission. In such cases, authorizations are given by the Government of Canada or by Cabinet. Operations are also done under a mandate given by the Communications Security Establishment, the CSE.

National Defence committee  Just as is the case for other government departments and for the industry, the Canadian Armed Forces and cyber forces have logistical support issues. They had that problem during the COVID‑19 pandemic, for example. With respect to procurement in Canada, this requires a full departmental effort.

National Defence committee  Absolutely, Mr. Chair. We talk about “the last mile” in-country. CSE personnel do not typically go into war zones or conflict zones, so in Canadian missions the last mile is done by Canadian Armed Forces personnel.

National Defence committee  Our relationship with our allies is as important as our relationship with CSE. We work very closely with the U.S. Of course, working with the U.S. is important for not only the defence but also the prosperity of North America. We are very closely aligned with U.S. Cyber Command, so much so that I have a liaison officer embedded within U.S.

National Defence committee  The CAF and CSE cyber capabilities differ for the principal reason that we do not want to duplicate or have redundant capabilities. CSE has more specialized technical expertise, while the Canadian Armed Forces are typically used for the last mile, in order to ensure that we have intelligence that supports both CSE and the CAF.

National Defence committee  The CAF and CSE operate together, depending on what support is required and under whose authorities certain operations are being done. If a specific military operation is being done under CAF authorities and we need some support in the form of intelligence or tools, we can get that via section 20 of the CSE Act.

National Defence committee  It is a very important question and it's very germane to what's going on in Russia and Ukraine. Russia is still a very serious cyber-actor. As you indicated, the top four are Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. With respect to your comments on cyberwarfare and more traditional conventional warfare, early in the fall we definitely saw a direct link between cyber events and kinetic activity.

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. The Canadian Armed Forces is investing imminently in the growth of the cybersecurity force, from both a technical and a personnel perspective. As I indicated, over the last three years we have been meeting our recruitment intake goals. We will continue to monitor those and grow the capacity and capability as needed to support the Canadian Armed Forces' missions and operations.

National Defence committee  You're asking about counter-space capabilities, ma'am. That's not my portfolio, so I wouldn't be able to respond to that question.

National Defence committee  Your question is specifically with respect to intelligence positions. That is not something I am tracking, ma'am. That is something we can take on notice. We can get back to you in writing.

National Defence committee  The one thing about the cyber-operator trade within the Canadian Armed Forces is that we recruit right from the ground level. We have the ability to recruit people out of high school. We have the ability to recruit directly from industry or from other levels of academia, such as universities, etc.

National Defence committee  I don't have that number readily available to me, but that is a number we could take on notice and provide to you if needed.

National Defence committee  That is a great question, and it's related to the conversation I've had with respect to recruitment and the creation of the cyber force operators. With the creation of the cyber force operators, there is a career plan and a progression plan throughout, from entry all the way to retirement.

National Defence committee  That is a very important question, as the CSE and CAF relationship has been a long-standing relationship, and it is continuing through cyber. CSE and CAF work closely day in and day out. As you would have heard last week from the CSE discussion, CSE personnel are embedded within the CAF teams and CAF personnel are embedded within the CSE teams.

National Defence committee  The cyber force is involved in all of these types of discussions with respect to the sharing of intelligence and cyber-related intelligence, so the cyber forces were involved in the conversations, but, as you were briefed yesterday, we are not the leads in these conversations.