Senator Gold: The government is committed to building a world-class marine industry through the National Shipbuilding Strategy. To achieve that, and to meet the evolving needs of the Canadian Coast Guard, the government, I’m advised, is moving forward with the construction of two polar icebreakers at Canadian shipyards — at Davie shipyard in Lévis, and Seaspan in Vancouver. It will be done under the auspices of the National Shipbuilding Strategy to support communities, the High Arctic, science and Canadian sovereignty in the North.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question. First, the government thanks the Office of the Auditor General for their report on the surveillance of Arctic waters. The government accepts the findings and the recommendations of the report and will continue to work with partners to address the gaps in Arctic maritime domain awareness.

For Canada, our maritime domain awareness in the Arctic is critical to ensuring we can manage the risks and respond to incidents that would have an impact on our security, environment and economy. I have, on a number of occasions, cited the investments the government has made, both to modernize NORAD, our space capabilities, our remotely piloted aircraft systems, our offshore patrol ships and the enhancement of our surveillance. I’ll not repeat those; they are on the record. It will continue to make investments and do what it needs to do to defend our North.