Arctic

This chapter seeks to outline the three functions required to ensure safe shipping in Canada’s Arctic; namely, safety, security and defence. Departments and their personnel ensure safe shipping via information, education and aids to navigation (safety function), enforcement of shipping laws (the constabulary or security function) and providing credible deterrence and defence against threats (the defence mandate). Thus, when it comes to safe shipping in Canada’s Arctic, Transport Canada, Canadian Ice Service (CIS), Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) and the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) as well as others, ship operators, and Indigenous governments, organizations, local communities and territorial governments, work to ensure that shipping in Canada’s Arctic is safe. Other agencies, including the CAF, contribute to safety to be sure, but the main agencies of note are mainly civilian and local agencies. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Transport Canada, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) and others ensure Canadian laws are respected. To deter and prosecute armed conflict, the CAF, especially the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), seek to deter, deny and defeat State and non-State-based threats, such as a sea-launched missile, and monitor the movement of other military vessels.

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