Vanguard Magazine

Figure 1: State of Canadian Space Governance 22 DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023 www.vanguardcanada.com SPACE Instead, as Figure 1 shows, Canada has an incomplete collection of civil, commer- cial and defence space policies, strategies and initiatives, exposing serious gaps and seams in policy and planning. For example: • The Radarsat series of capabilities have evolved through a variety of owner- ship models (public-private partnership, commercial ownership, government ownership). Regarding RADARSAT-2, such changes had serious problematic impacts on the defence crown jewel of Canada-U.S. intelligence sharing; • Overlapping and competing projects such as DND's Defence Enhanced Sur- veillance from Space project (DESSP) and the Canadian Space Agency's (CSA) Earth Observations Service Continuity (EOSC) project, both designed to re- place existing Radarsat systems, lack na- tional guidance to harmonize competing goals, leading to wasted resources and duplicated costs; • National security oversight of Canadian remote sensing space systems by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) via the Remote Sensing Space Systems Act (RSSSA) 3 hinders the development of the Cana- dian remote sensing space industry and limits its contributions to Canada's vi- sion for space; and • Tensions between space as a military operational domain (e.g., military space doctrine) and diplomatic initia- tives for international space governance (e.g., Canada's inputs to UN Resolu- tion 75/36 on "Reducing space threats through norms, rules and principles of responsible behaviors" (2020)) require overarching guidance to work in har- mony with one another and conform to a focused policy. Such gaps and seams lead to inefficiencies, which will continue to impede the imple- mentation of Canada's full range of space initiatives unless an overarching, harmo- nizing national vision for space is estab- lished. Such a vision must include a viable, well considered and co-ordinated alloca- tion of roles, responsibilities and resourc- es. As discussed below, a review of some of our closest allies' approaches provides some guidance on what Canada's vision for space should include, namely: • Effective national leadership, poten- tially including a cabinet committee for space, 4 chaired by the prime minister, to ensure broad engagement and optimal allocation of funding for implementa- tion of departments' desired projects; • A national space policy to identify and describe Canada's goals for space that considers, at a minimum, partnerships, niche contributions, economic oppor- tunities, required sovereign capabilities and leadership objectives in global space governance; • A national space strategy to describe how Canada's goals for space will be achieved, including the co-ordinated allocation of roles and responsibilities for space activities to departments and agencies, and guidance for subordinate civil, commercial and national security space policies and strategies; and • Most critically, a fully considered and funded plan that enables the execution of the strategy; without the necessary centralized funding, strategies become words without outcomes. have all developed the capacity to attack space systems, while many other nations have developed the ability to interfere with ground elements of space systems, through cyber/electronic means or kinetic attack. Space has the potential to become a future combat environment, putting the civil, commercial and national security advan- tages we enjoy from it at risk. As a middle space power, Canada relies very heavily on military allies, civil and commercial partnerships and multi-use sys- tems to achieve required space effects. 2 The awkward reality is that we own and oper- ate very little of what we actually need and use on a daily basis. We are dependent on others for critical capabilities. Those capa- bilities we do own and operate, such as the Canadian multi-use Radarsat series of satel- lites, provide critical government, commer- cial and military space effects. But across the range of civil, commercial and national security space activities, all closely inter- locked at the working level, Canada has no all-encompassing national space policy, strategy or plan to ensure those activities are aligned in a whole-of-government ef- fort, or that they represent the best overall collection of capabilities for Canada. Monitoring at all levels in order to identify unintended consequences and successes and allow for change of course on a more case-by-case basis will go a long way to ensure progress and change without disrupting processes.

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