The recent flyby of a Chinese spy balloon over Canadian and US airspace puts a “sharp focus” on why Canada must prioritize modernizing its military amid rising incursions into the Arctic from China and Russia, says former Secretary of Defense Peter MacKay.
The balloon’s appearance — and the response to three other airborne objects shot down over North America this past weekend — has raised “broader questions” about how safe Canada’s Arctic is from foreign threats, MacKay said in an interview with Mercedes Stephenson The West Block Sunday.
The answers to these questions, he added, do not cast Canada in a favorable light.
“If anything, this balloon incident, which looks overblown — excuse the pun — put a sharp focus on what will be required,” MacKay said. “I don’t think we took the situation seriously enough.
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“We just need a lot more in terms of our protection of sovereignty and the projection of Canada’s military capability.”
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The Chinese spy balloon flew over Alaska between Jan. 30 and 31 and illegally entered Canadian airspace, flying south over the Yukon River and central British Columbia before hovering over the U.S. Midwest, Canadian officials said on Friday . It was shot down by US fighter jets off the coast of the Carolinas on February 4th.
This incident prompted NORAD – the continental air defense network – to survey North American airspace, ultimately leading to the detection and shooting down of unidentified objects over Alaska on February 10, Yukon on February 11 and Lake Huron on February 12.
The objects posed a risk to civilian aircraft, U.S. and Canadian officials said, but are believed not to be linked to China or any other foreign surveillance operation, according to U.S. intelligence agencies. Recovery efforts for the objects were hampered by inclement weather, resulting in the search for the Lake Huron object being suspended entirely.
Though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Joe Biden have emphasized their collaborative approach to the three takedowns, MacKay is confident America is calling the shots.
3:36 Defense officials revealed Chinese spy balloon trajectory over Canada
That’s because Canada’s influence within NORAD wanes as its military assets age, he said.
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“We lose face and we lose that influence if we don’t up our game,” said MacKay, who was defense secretary in Stephen Harper’s Conservative government from 2007 to 2013.
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“We don’t have modern aircraft. We don’t have the ships we need. We certainly don’t have the number of submarines that the US and UK and others have.”
The federal government is still working to replace its aging naval fleets and bring in new F-35 fighter jets, projects that are years behind schedule.
Canada is also still awaiting delivery of AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles and advanced radars — the very same heat-seeking systems that brought down the craft last weekend — more than two years after they were ordered from the US
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In 2021, Australia, Britain and the United States signed the AUKUS Security Pact to counter China’s growing military presence in the Indo-Pacific, where Canada has growing economic and security interests. Canadian officials have commented on whether Canada has been invited to join the pact, which only suggests the partnership is primarily focused on nuclear submarine procurement – something the Liberals are not in the market for.
This has raised concerns among Canadian Forces leaders that Canada will not have access to the same cutting-edge military technology as its closest allies.
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MacKay took Canada’s absence from the AUKUS pact as a sign of the country’s dwindling clout, which he attributes to the federal government’s failure to meet NATO’s military spending standard of 2.0 percent of GDP.
“All of this together is taking Canada’s voice down at a lot of the tables,” he said.
The latest figures from NATO show Canada’s defense spending to GDP ratio has fallen to 1.27 percent in 2022 from 1.36 percent in 2021.
Ottawa predicts the rate will rise to 1.43 percent by 2025, with billions in promised further spending that would still fall short of the target. The House Budget Commissioner says the federal government would need to spend an additional $75.3 billion over the next five years to reach 2.0 percent.
0:43 Suspected spy balloons shot down over North America show the importance of vigilance, Stoltenberg says
In meetings with her US counterparts in Washington last week, Secretary of Defense Anita Anand underscored the importance of modernizing NORAD and safeguarding operations in the Arctic in the face of the Chinese spy balloon, which the US has warned is part of a broader foreign surveillance program of Beijing.
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MacKay agrees, noting that China and Russia are pursuing “opportunistic” approaches in the Arctic — and not just in airspace.
“Similarly, with the opening up of Arctic waters, the Russians are more active, as are the Chinese, in sending these research vessels through our waters,” he said.
“The Russians are much better prepared, much better armed and much more capable. This will pose certain challenges for Canada in particular, but also for NORAD and North America.”
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Russia’s increasing presence in the Arctic is consistent with the aggression displayed in its nearly year-long invasion of Ukraine, MacKay said, which “will continue to test NATO and Western commitments.”
But he added Canada and the rest of the Western allies must do more to help Ukraine win the war he fears is “far from over”.
“The sending of tanks, air defense systems, everything except, frankly, ground shoes must continue,” he said.
“This is a fundamental threat not only to Ukraine, but to global security and the entire peace order of the world. That is on the doorstep of Europe.”
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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