Canada Senate Report "Military underfunded: The walk must match the talk" for the Defense Policy Review. Credit: Senate of Canada.
A new Senate report by the Standing Committee National Security and Defence, Military underfunded: The walk must match the talk, commissioned in 2016 as part of the Defence Policy Review concludes that Canada's space assets need to be declared critical to the nations' infrastructure and protected. The conclusion comes as no surprise to those who work in the space community. It's now up to Liberal government to act upon it.
The report is very specific in when it comes to discussing Cyber and Space, devoting a section, "Cyber and Space: Integral to Canada's Defence and National Security" to the issue.
National Security and Defence on Nov. 21, 2017. Credit: Senate of Canada.
The Seneta committee heard from Canadian Space Agency President Sylvain Laporte, Luc Brûlé, Vice-President; Éric Laliberté, Director General, Space Utilization; and Eric Veilleux, Manager, Planning and Management Financial Resources.
The Canadian Space Agency has advocating with government "the idea of classifying many of our satellites as critical infrastructure" according to Brûlé.
seek ways to secure the full spectrum of all critical infrastructure assets against significant threats, including electromagnetic pulse, by 2020 in partnership with the United States and other countries and that it report to Parliament in 180 days, and annually thereafter.
As with the other issues related to military and space, successive governments have been doing a lot of talk and little action. Procurement decisions keep getting punted or reviewed, policy issues move at a snails pace. If successive governments continue down this path, the repercussions for all Canadians could be difficult and the economy could be the least of the resulting issues.