Aging icebreakers, aircraft hamper Canada’s monitoring of Arctic: auditor general

Canada’s auditor general says the federal government doesn’t have a good handle on what’s going on in its Arctic waters.

In a report tabled Tuesday, Karen Hogan says the agencies responsible for safety and security in the North don’t have a clear picture of traffic in the region.

She says Transport Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard aren’t ready for the challenges that will come as climate change opens those waters to increasing shipping and economic development.

She says the issues include poor surveillance and vessel tracking, ineffective information sharing and aging icebreakers and patrol aircraft.

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Hogan says the Nanisivik naval facility on the northern tip of Baffin Island has done little to improve the situation.

Her report says the inconsistent Canadian presence in those waters opens them to unauthorized access, accidents, illegal fishing and marine pollution.

The auditor general also says government departments have not always effectively implemented measures to ensure secure storage of information in the digital cloud.

In a separate report, Hogan says requirements were not always clear for putting information in the cloud – computer servers located in data centres.

Hogan says these shortcomings increase the risk of security breaches as cyberattacks become more common and sophisticated.

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She urges the government to take immediate action to strengthen how it prevents, detects and responds to cyberattacks.

She says it should do this now, while departments are still in the early stages of moving personal information to the cloud.

This action includes shoring up key security controls as well as clarifying shared roles and responsibilities for cybersecurity.