Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/1508203
A recent poll by Ipsos is both revealing and reassuring about how Canadians view the security of the Arctic. "Increasingly, Canadians are viewing the Arctic as a key area of inter- est for monitoring and defending. Over eight in 10 (83 per cent) of Canadians want Canada's military to monitor all who sail through the Northwest Passage, which passes through Canadian territo- rial waters," states an Aug. 4 press release accompanying the poll. "Canadians are also in favour of an increased presence in the North, with 73 percent agreeing that more military bases should be built in the far North to protect Canada's Arctic ter- ritories, and half (51 per cent) in favour of Canada acquiring nuclear submarines to defend the region." The November 2022 report of the Auditor General of Canada on the surveillance of Arctic waters and the 2023 reports of both the Senate and House of Commons Committees on Na- tional Defence deplore the government's performance on the matter of national se- curity of the Arctic. This, at a time when the geopolitical situation is becoming in- creasingly complex and dangerous. The disappearance of the ice is increas- ing access to the Arctic Archipelago. For a number of years, I have been promoting W E N E E D A C H A M P I O N A N D L E A D E R S H I P the development of Resolute Bay as a se- curity hub in the Arctic for all the federal departments to deliver on their national responsibilities. Resolute Bay sits in the centre of the Arctic Archipelago, and on most of the possible transit routes of the Northwest Passage. Resolute Bay would provide a critical base of operations for the Canadian Armed Forces, Canadian Coast Guard, Fisheries and Oceans, Cana- dian Border Security Agency, the Hydro- graphic Services, and Natural Resources, to name but a few. The present facilities provide a solid base on which to develop Resolute Bay as a security hub, while at the same time Deployed members of the Joint Task Force Support Component arrive at Resolute Bay, Nunavut for Operation NUNALIVUT 2018 on February 27, 2018. Photo: Major Jean-Francois Robert, Commander Assessment Team Commander T H E LA S T W O R D B Y P I E R R E L E B LA N C TO S E C U R E T H E A RCT I C CANADA'S GLOBAL REPUTATION ON NATIONAL SECURITY IS THAT OF A FREELOADER THAT DOES NOT CARRY ITS FAIR SHARE OF DEFENCE. www.vanguardcanada.com AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2023 33