Conflicting views on military needs in the North
Maria Canton
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 21/01) - Recent reports that Canada's military is "incapable" of protecting the North are not accurate, says the commander of Canadian Forces Northern Area Headquarters.
"To say we are 'incapable' is a little pessimistic," said Col. Kevin McLeod, who succeeded Col. Pierre Leblanc as commander in July 2000.
Since his retirement, Leblanc has been a strident critic of federal spending on military duties in the North.
McLeod says that his annual operating budget of $12 million is sufficient.
"I have a tremendous amount of capabilities available to me and a tremendous amount of assets," McLeod said in an interview with Yellowknifer. McLeod also rejected a published report that the Northern military headquarters in Yellowknife is not connected to secret information systems in the south and is therefore unable to collect and analyze intelligence.
"To say we aren't linked to systems in the south is erroneous. We have three very capable systems linking us to secret information sites in the south," he said.
McLeod says that there are 1,300 Canadian Rangers to notify headquarters of suspicious or unusual activity in their areas.
Leblanc says Rangers do not conduct regular patrols, and can't possibly cover the vast territory the size of continental Europe. In the High Arctic there are only about 50 Rangers in three small communities who are responsible for reporting all unusual occurrences, he said.
Furthermore, Leblanc says Aurora aircraft patrols have been reduced from 20 flights a year to just one flight for 2001.
"It doesn't take an expert to tell you that it isn't enough," said Leblanc, who retired last summer after five years as commander.
"It is at the point that we don't have appropriate monitoring in the Arctic. The Canadian Government is turning a blind eye to (Northern) coverage.
"I think our only hope is surveillance from space, but that is only a possibility for the future."
But McLeod says that things have changed significantly since Leblanc retired and are now shaping up to protect the new "asymmetrical threats" in the North.
McLeod has twice travelled to Ottawa to brief the chief of Defence and an "Arctic Capabilities" study was completed in December 2000 and accepted by the chief of Defence. Steps are being followed to implement the needs outlined in the study.
"We have determined there is no military threat to Canada right now, but our security and safety are threatened by things like fresh water openings, our (natural) resources and travel through the Northwest Passage.
"Just because resources aren't in the North doesn't mean they aren't available to us," he said.
"When we get a report of something unusual or something we want to investigate, we ask aircraft to come up and photograph the areas. Now they are flying with a specific mission, not just flying for the sake of flying."
