Foreign Affairs committee  Very briefly, I think the only way forward with regard to nuclear-weapons-free zones in the Arctic is in taking an incremental approach. It is essential to recognize that the Arctic Ocean is one of the most heavily nuclearized places on earth, because of the Russian northern fleet and the U.S. navy's presence to monitor and track Russian nuclear submarines.

Foreign Affairs committee  First, I'm not a scientist, so my answers need to be taken with an understanding that this is not my expertise. Black carbon and Arctic haze are particulates, very fine particles, produced through the burning of fossil fuels. Black carbon is specifically in developed countries mostly from diesel generators and diesel trucks.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would encourage the committee to read that Arctic foreign policy statement closely, because of course it is the last official comprehensive position of this government on the matter before you of Arctic foreign policy. There are a couple of things that I would highlight about that policy.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, I can.

Foreign Affairs committee  There were nine concrete steps. Just so you know, we quite deliberately set it up so that there was a team of American negotiators, Canadian negotiators, all non-government or ex-government people. Mr. Cellucci came in as the lead American negotiator, and the first thing he said was that he was putting his personal views on the shelf and behaving as if he was negotiating for the United States.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, absolutely.

Foreign Affairs committee  One of my favourite Canadian-owned companies is Viking Air of Victoria, B.C. They're making brand-new Twin Otters, one of the best aircraft ever built in the world. They're making them and selling them around the world. I understand they will be putting in a bid for new DHC-5 Buffalos for fixed-wing search and rescue.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  Let me give you just a couple of examples. We have great surveillance capacity from space in the Arctic right now. Surveillance is a component of search and rescue in terms of tracking vessels and being able to get high-quality imagery in emergency situations. I would love to see the government fully commit to the RADARSAT Constellation series.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you for that. This comes back to my initial point in my presentation. The Arctic Council is a venue for foreign policy for international relations. It brings together former Cold War adversaries. You have the United States and Russia sitting at the same table and a U.S. administration that has explicitly recognized the Arctic as an opportunity to engage Russia in a cooperative direction.

Foreign Affairs committee  I have just one simple point. If we're going to create a regional fisheries organization, let's do it before the commercial fishing starts. Let's get there before interests are vested. I agree entirely with Professor McRae that the timing here is opportune. If we miss this opportunity in the next two years, those long-range fishing trawlers could be there already.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, and my compliments on your research as well. I'm glad you were following my work. Yes, the search and rescue challenges are increasing almost exponentially. Yes, there are more than 100,000 people who fly over the Canadian Arctic each day on flights from Los Angeles to London or New York to Beijing.

Foreign Affairs committee  I mentioned it. If you have a buildup of pressure in a well or a blowout in a well resulting from an accident, as occurred with BP in the Gulf of Mexico, one of the main ways you seek to control that development is to drill a parallel well to extract oil and relieve the pressure.

Foreign Affairs committee  On the same question?

Foreign Affairs committee  I have four. Oil spill prevention in addition to oil spill preparedness and response—that's number one. Number two would be the short-lived climate forcers. I've already mentioned black carbon and Arctic haze. I think we could make real progress there in two years with strong Canadian leadership.