Vanguard Magazine

should have their maritime mission T he recent auditor gen- eral of Canada's report on the matter of Arctic wa- ters surveillance was both disappoint¬ing and alarming. It was disap¬pointing because it highlights that "the government has not taken the required action to address long-standing gaps affecting its surveillance of Canada's Arctic waters" and alarming, because soon, we could be partially blind to what is go- ing on in this beautiful but fragile part of our country because there could very well be gaps in the replacement of critical as- sets such as icebreak¬ers and space-based surveillance satellites. The report makes clear that even with the assets we have presently, we lack the abil- ity to permanently monitor a specific site from satellites, one of our most precious security assets. Although the RADARSAT Con¬stellation allows us to scan the whole surface of the Arctic with great accuracy, the satellites are constantly in motion and cannot maintain surveillance of a specific point of interest. One must wait for the next orbit of one of the three satellites to have another look at a potential tar- get. The Navy and the Canadian Coast Guard ships we deploy in the Arc¬tic over the shipping season need to cover an area greater than con¬tinental Europe. They will be days away from an incident unless they happen to be inadvertently close by. One may recall that the New Zealand ves- sel that illegally transited the Northwest Passage because of COVID restrictions was spotted by the Inuit Maritime Moni- CANADIAN RANGERS toring Program, a Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. initiative, as op¬posed to a federal program. In 2010, Enhancing The Role Of The Rangers In The Arctic: A Discussion Paper, a study com¬missioned by sev- eral Senators, including Senator Dennis Patter¬son of Nunavut and then-Senator Roméo Dallaire, recommended increas- ing the role of the Cana¬dian Rangers with a maritime mission. The Canadian Rangers have this great reputation of being the eyes and ears of the Canadian Forces on the land in the Arctic. It is a proven cost-ef¬fective program. In addi- tion to some limited training on the land, the Canadian Rangers also report on any suspicious activity while performing their day-to-day activities. They support Canadian Rangers patrol boats (right and center) sail towards HMCS HARRY DEWOLF on the Eclipse Sound, Nunavut, during Operation NANOOK-NUNAKPUT, August 19, 2021. Photo by: Corporal Simon Arcand, Canadian Armed Forces Photo www.vanguardcanada.com DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023 37 THE LAST WORD BY COL PIERRE LEBLANC (RET'D)

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