Hansard on Radarsat-2
39:2 Hansard - 42 (2008/2/1)
[English]
Ms. Bonnie Brown (Oakville, Lib.):
Mr. Speaker, MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, Canada’s leading aerospace company, has just decided to sell its space program to a large American arms manufacturer. The sale includes RADARSAT-2, a state of the art satellite used for monitoring crops and forests, climate change, tracking ships at sea and mapping Arctic sea ice.
Canadian taxpayers paid $445 million, or about 85% of the total cost of developing this technology. In return we were promised large amounts of imagery and priority access to RADARSAT-2 in emergencies.
Once it is sold, Ottawa’s ability to control what the satellite is used for and to use it in emergencies will be lost. Worse yet, the U.S. government would be able to use our satellite in ways that might contradict our interests. For example, it could assist its efforts to send a ship into the Northwest Passage without our consent.
The Harper government has indicated a desire to block foreign investments that threaten Canada’s security interests. RADARSAT–
39:2 Hansard - 51 (2008/2/14)
Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, the proposed sale of MacDonald Dettwiler, MDA, to the American armaments giant ATK undermines Canadian sovereignty and must be stopped. The sale of MDA is an unacceptable transfer of publicly funded technology to a private U.S. military contractor.
Canadians invested over $400 million in RADARSAT-2 with the promise of priority access to the satellite in cases of emergency, such as oil spills and suspect vessels entering Canada’s north.Control of RADARSAT-2 by ATK is against our national security interests. Ottawa’s access to the images produced by the satellite could be lost. Worse still, RADARSAT-2 could be used to develop space based weapons and missile guidance systems for the U.S. military.
The government must defend Canadian sovereignty and immediately halt the sale of RADARSAT-2’s licensing authority to Alliant Techsystems. It is vital for RADARSAT-2 to remain under Canadian control and to be used only for peaceful purposes.
