Senator Patterson: Senator Gold, speaking of surveillance, Canada has known for years that we need to modernize the outdated North Warning System. In 2016, the defence policy where Canada tabled Strong, Secure, Engaged placed emphasis on defence innovation and long-term investments in defence. Renewing the North Warning System was included in the last mandate letter, and on August 14, 2021, a joint statement between the U.S. and Canada underscored the importance of upgrading and modernizing our outdated defence infrastructure command and control systems.

Right now, we don’t even have the capacity for the over-the-horizon monitoring to watch for hypersonic missiles, which we know China and Russia have. My question, Senator Gold, is what is the specific timeline your government has set to complete this critical security upgrade, and what concrete steps have been taken since the directive in 2016 to renew the North Warning System?