Documents on Canadian Arctic Sovereignty and Security CANADIAN ARCTIC DEFENCE POLICY A SYNTHESIS OF KEY DOCUMENTS, 1970-2013 Ryan Dean, P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Adam Lajeunesse Documents on Canadian Arctic Sovereignty and Security (DCASS) ISSN 2368-4569 Series Editors: P. Whitney Lackenbauer Adam Lajeunesse Managing Editor: Ryan Dean Canadian Arctic Defence Policy: A Synthesis of Key Documents, 1970-2013 DCASS Number 1 (2014) Cover: A Canadian Ranger drives his all-terrain vehicle into position at the Operation NANOOK base camp in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut on 20 August 2013. Photo: Capt Bonnie Wilken, Joint Task Force (North) Public Affairs. Centre for Military and Strategic Studies Centre on Foreign Policy and Federalism University of Calgary St. Jerome’s University 2500 University Dr. N.W. 290 Westmount Road N. Calgary, AB T2N 1N4 Waterloo, ON N2L 3G3 Tel: 403.220.4030 Tel: 519.884.8110 ext. 28233 www.cmsss.ucalgary.ca www.sju.ca/cfpf Copyright © the authors/editors, 2014 Permission policies are outlined on our website http://cmss.ucalgary.ca/dcass Canadian Arctic Defence Policy: A Synthesis of Key Documents, 1970-2013 Ryan Dean, M.A. P. Whitney Lackenbauer, Ph.D. and Adam Lajeunesse, Ph.D. Foreword This publication is intended to serve as a general reference document for scholars and policy-makers exploring topics in Canadian Arctic security policy since the 1970s. It provides a summary of and key quotations from major defence, foreign policy, and general policy documents and parliamentary reports related to the Arctic, beginning with the Defence in the ’70s white paper. Parliamentary reports and official policy statements set expectations and point to desired outcomes. Nevertheless, “Policy is only as good as the action it inspires,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon noted at the unveiling ceremony of Canada’s Northern Strategy in 2009. This working paper does not attempt to assess government success in implementing policies. Instead, we intend for it to serve as an accessible compendium of major official statements on sovereignty and security to help frame future policy discussion and to support more robust scholarly assessment of Canada’s Arctic record. For general background on Canadian defence policy and the Arctic, see Ken Coates, Whitney Lackenbauer, William Morrison and Greg Poelzer, Arctic Front: Defending Canada’s Interests in the Far North (Toronto: Thomas Allen, 2008); Kenneth C. Eyre, “Forty Years of Military Activity in the Canadian North, 1947-87,” Arctic 40/4 (December 1987), 292-99; and Ron Purver, “The Arctic in Canadian Security Policy, 1945 to the Present,” in Canada’s International Security Policy, eds. David B. Dewitt and David Leyton-Brown (Scarborough, ON: Prentice-Hall, 1995): 81-110. On the Trudeau era, see Edgar Dosman, ed., The Arctic in Question (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1976) and P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Peter Kikkert, eds., The Canadian Forces and Arctic Sovereignty: Debating Roles, Interests and Requirements, 1968-1974 (Waterloo: Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies/Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2009). On the Mulroney era, see Franklyn Griffiths, ed., Politics of the Northwest Passage (Kingston & Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1987); Franklyn Griffiths, ed., Arctic Alternatives: Civility or Militarism in the Circumpolar North (Toronto: Science for Peace/Samuel Stevens, 1992); and Rob Huebert, ii “Steel, Ice and Decision-Making: The Voyage of the Polar Sea and its Aftermath” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Dalhousie University, 1994). On the transition to the post-Cold War era, see Rob Huebert, “Canadian Arctic Security Issues: Transformation in the Post-Cold War Era,” International Journal 54/2 (1999): 203-229. For introductions to developments over the last decade, see P. Whitney Lackenbauer, ed., Canada and Arctic Sovereignty and Security: Historical Perspectives (Calgary: Centre for Military and Strategic Studies/University of Calgary Press, 2011) and Franklyn Griffiths, Rob Huebert, and P. Whitney Lackenbauer, Canada and the Changing Arctic: Sovereignty, Security and Stewardship (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011). iii Table of Contents Foreword ...................................................................................................... ii 1. Defence in the 70s: White Paper on Defence ............................................ 1 2. Independence and Internationalism .......................................................... 5 3. Canada’s International Relations: Government Response to Independence and Internationalism ................................................................................... 12 4. Challenge and Commitment: A Defence Policy for Canada .................... 15 5. Defence Update 1988-89 ........................................................................ 18 6. Looking North: Canada’s Arctic Commitment ....................................... 20 7. Canadian Defence Policy ........................................................................ 23 8. Security in a Changing World................................................................. 24 9. Canada’s Foreign Policy: Principles and Priorities for the Future ............ 26 10. 1994 White Paper on Defence .............................................................. 27 11. Canada and the Circumpolar World: Meeting the Challenges of Co- operation into the Twenty-First Century .................................................... 28 12. Government Response to Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade Report “Canada and the Circumpolar World: Meeting the Challenges of Cooperation into the Twenty-First Century” .................. 31 13. Speech from the Throne to Open the Second Session of the Thirty-Sixth Parliament of Canada ................................................................................. 35 14. The Northern Dimension of Canada’s Foreign Policy .......................... 36 15. Canada’s International Policy Statement: A Role of Pride and Influence in the World—Overview ............................................................................ 39 16. Canada’s International Policy Statement: A Role of Pride and Influence in the World—Defence .............................................................................. 39 17. Managing Turmoil: The Need to Upgrade Canadian Foreign Aid and Military Strength to Deal with Massive Change: An Interim Report ........... 41 18. Prime Minister announces expansion of Canadian Forces facilities and operations in the Arctic ............................................................................... 45 iv 19. Speech from the Throne to Open the Second Session of the 39th Parliament of Canada ................................................................................. 46 20. Canada First Defence Strategy .............................................................. 47 21. The Coast Guard in Canada’s Arctic: Interim Report ........................... 48 22. Rising to the Arctic Challenge: Report on the Canadian Coast Guard .. 50 23. Government of Canada Response to the Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans “Rising to the Arctic Challenge: Report on the Canadian Coast Guard” ................................................................... 53 24. Notes for an Address by the Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, on the Release of the Government of Canada’s Northern Strategy ....................................................................................................... 57 25. Canada’s Northern Strategy: Our North, Our Heritage, Our Future .... 57 26. Controlling Canada’s Arctic Waters: Role of the Canadian Coast Guard ................................................................................................................... 61 27. Government of Canada Response to the Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans “Controlling Canada’s Arctic Waters: Role of the Canadian Coast Guard” ............................................................ 63 28. Statement on Canada's Arctic Foreign Policy: Exercising Sovereignty and Promoting Canada’s Northern Strategy Abroad .......................................... 66 29. Canada's Arctic Sovereignty .................................................................. 69 30. Government Response to the Third Report of the Standing Committee on National Defence, “Canada’s Arctic Sovereignty” .................................. 74 31. Sovereignty & Security in Canada’s Arctic, Interim Report ................... 74 32. Canada and the Arctic Council: An Agenda for Regional Leadership .... 78 v Canadian Arctic Defence Policy: A Synthesis of Key Documents, 1970-2013 1. Defence in the 70s: White Paper on Defence Department of National Defence, August 1971. Donald S. Macdonald, the Minister of National Defence, released Defence in the 70s: White Paper on Defence in August 1971. It began declaring that “important international and domestic changes have occurred since the review of defence policy which culminated in the White Paper issued in 1964,” and these required a “fundamental reappraisal of Canadian defence policy.” The priorities for Canadian defence policy were set out in Prime Minister Trudeau’s 3 April 1969 statement, which summarized four major areas of activity for the Canadian Forces: (a) the surveillance of our own territory and coast-lines, i.e. the protection of our sovereignty; (b) the defence of North America in co-operation