Former NORAD chief questions Canada’s ‘urgency’ on Arctic defence

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As Canada and the U.S. focused in recent years on the “away game” of fighting terrorism in far-flung nations, Russia and China continued to target North America — and found a continent woefully unprepared for the threat, recently retired generals and other experts warned this week.

At a Mackenzie Institute forum on security in the Arctic on Wednesday in Toronto, speakers argued that Canada needs to urgently boost its lagging investment in defence — or see its control of the Far North slip away to foreign adversaries.

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An actual military presence in the Arctic — which makes up 40 per cent of Canada — plus transportation infrastructure and resource development that benefit local Indigenous populations are necessary to counter growing incursions by Russia, China and others, the experts said.

But there’s little sign the Trudeau government is committed to giving more than lip service to such challenges, they said.

An updated defence policy the Liberals released in the spring, along with promises to buy new fighter jets and submarines, is the right idea, but must actually be implemented, said retired U.S. Gen. Glen Vanherck, who until early this year commanded the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD).

“I look forward to seeing those actions but there’s not a history of (Canada) taking those actions,” Vanherck said in an interview before giving the conference’s key note address.

“There is no sense of urgency, for the most part, from the leadership of the government of Canada,” he said. “It is easy to say we’re going to buy F-35 (fighter jets), we’re going to buy submarines. But with that comes a lot of requirements to build infrastructure, set up logistics pipelines, set up training pipelines. And my question is, is Canada ready to do that?”

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Retired Canadian Gen. Andrew Leslie, who was a Liberal MP from 2015 to 2019 after leading the Canadian Army, was less diplomatic.

Alliances like NORAD and NATO are particularly important with authoritarian leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin “on the prowl,” but Canada’s part in those groups is “sorely lacking,” he said.

“You have to contribute your fair share and, quite frankly, Canada, over the last nine to 10 years, has not done so,” said Leslie. “There’s one issue that seems to galvanize and unify (U.S.) Republicans and Democrats, both in the House of Representatives and the Senate. That is their concern and dismay over Canada’s paltry contributions to international peace and security and the unacceptable — and I’ll use that word again, unacceptable — levels of money spent on defence capability.”

The Army is short 16,000 personnel, he added, while “70 per cent of the army’s vehicles don’t work because they’re either waiting for spare parts or they don’t have the mechanics to fix them. Half our Navy’s fleet, their ships can’t actually set sail because they don’t have the sailors or the spare parts to get them out of port.”

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The Conservatives do not have a much better record on supporting the military, suggested Leona Alleslev, a former MP who crossed the floor from the Liberals to the Tories. That means that Canadian citizens, companies and think tanks need to push for “nation building” in the North to help protect it, said Alleslev, a former air force officer.

The conference centred around concerns that as climate change makes the Arctic more navigable for ships, countries such as Russia — which has recently rebuilt numerous Arctic bases — and China — which declares itself a “near-arctic” nation despite being thousands of kilometres away — are sending increasing numbers of military vessels and aircraft into the region.

Those incursions are part of broader attempts by those adversaries to challenge North America, some speakers said.

The 9/11 attacks led to an emphasis on the “away game” — fighting terrorists and other enemies overseas to ensure they don’t become a bigger threat at home, said retired Major-Gen. Scott Clancy, who was director of operations for NORAD until 2021.

The U.S. Defense Department “is focused on fighting the away game, hamstringing the commander of NORAD, U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and belying the vulnerability of our homeland,” Clancy said.

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“As the Middle East missions evolved — ISIS, al-Qaida, the Taliban, whatever it was — Russia began flexing its muscles with each and every incursion into the air defence identification zones of Canada and the United States. They approach our coastlines from all sides. They still do. And the most recent incursions … include Chinese aircraft along with them. I have long said, where you see the intersection of Russian and Chinese interests, especially in military co-operation, we should be worried.”

While Russian planes can get to U.S. airspace in Alaska within about half an hour, it would take the nearest F-22 Raptor, an American fighter jet, two hours to get to the same spot at full speed, he said.

Vanherck, Clancy’s former boss at NORAD, echoed his warnings, saying the notion that Russia is a “paper tiger” because of its slog of a war in Ukraine is misguided.

“In my three and a half years in command of NORAD and NORTHCOM, what I saw was exactly the opposite,” he said. “Strategically, they deployed more, they deployed more bombers, they deployed more submarines … They’re still very capable, with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal and hypersonic weapons.”

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That said, speakers argued that it’s unlikely Russia or China would actually try to invade the Canadian Arctic, or otherwise attack North America. Their goal is more to impose themselves in the region with resource development and infrastructure like ports and roads, they said.

There are reports of Indigenous organizations and other authorities in the North, for instance, being offered major funding from Chinese interests, said Brian Hay, the Mackenzie president.

“The actions that are ongoing are for influence — Russian influence, Chinese influence,” said Vanherck. “They’re seeking to change international law norms, get after resources through claims that put them in a better position globally, economically, diplomatically, than they are today. … This is about influence and changing the world order.”

Russia at least purports to want peace in the region because of its ambitions to exploit the Arctic economically, said Alison LeClaire, Canada’s ambassador to Moscow from 2020 to 2023, and its top Arctic official before that.

Already, the country derives as much as 20 per cent of its gross domestic product from Arctic development, she said, compared to less than one per cent in Canada.

“The reality is that everybody wants into the Arctic, and it’s ours to protect,” she said. “We need to stand up for ourselves and be present.”

National Post

(The National Post was a media sponsor of the Mackenzie Institute event, and Tom Blackwell moderated part of the discussion.)

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