New NORAD deal still a question mark

It’s too early to predict how the new U.S.-Canada NORAD agreement will affect the role of Canadian forces operating in Canada’s Arctic, Col. Norm Couturier, the commander of Joint Task Force North, told reporters last month in Iqaluit.

“There will be some changes, but we still don’t know exactly what they’re going to be,” Couturier said.

NORAD was created in 1958 to defend North America against long-range bombers and nuclear missiles launched from the former Soviet Union.

The renewed agreement, signed April 28 in Ottawa, expands NORAD’s job to include maritime defence, especially protecting major seaports against infiltration by terrorists.

But right now, that simply means more communication between Canada and the U.S.

“The only thing that we can be sure of is that we will be passing more information back and forth so that we can be seamless in maritime defence,” Couterier said.

And Couturier said the new agreement won’t bring more U.S. ships into Canadian waters.

“I don’t think there will be much difference in what the public is going to see,” he said.

Couturier said Canada is already beefing up its ability to keep track of who enters the Canadian Arctic through Polar Epsilon and other high-tech methods that the Department of National Defence is now working on.

Polar Epsilon would use underwater sensors to communicate information through a satellite expected to be launched next year. Another detection scheme would use long-range unmanned aircraft carrying a cornucopia of detection technologies.

The NORAD renewal agreement is now, for all intents and purposes, a done deal, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper says it will be debated in the House of Commons.