In 1953 the Enbridge pipeline line 5 was completed to transport oil from Alberta to the refinery in Sarnia Ontario. However, to avoid having to go through the difficult Canadian Shield the pipeline diverts into the U.S. through the States of Wisconsin and Michigan and under the Straits of Mackinac which is now an environmental point of contention between Canada and the U.S. owing to the age of the pipeline and the threat of a leak into the Great Lakes. The pipeline currently supplies Michigan with 65% of its home heating propane and half the feedstock for Quebec and Ontario refineries so it is critical to both Michigan and Canada for the products it transports. Enbridge would like to replace the underwater portion with a new one but the permitting process is tied up in the courts and therein lies the weakness of having a critical network running through the U.S. If Enbridge loses the court case it is possible the pipeline could be shut off at the Canadian border. An obvious failsafe solution would be to route a new pipeline around the Great Lakes on Canadian territory.
Fortunately, the Trans Canada Natural Gas Pipeline which was completed in 1958 has managed to avoid this problem. The pipeline is still able to supply U.S. customers where it meets the border but it can also expand to International customers via an extension through Quebec and New Brunswick. It could also be converted to an oil pipeline. Of course there would also be environmental and political hurdles to overcome but at least we have options with the pipeline being completely in Canadian territory.
Interestingly the Trans-Canada freeway opened in 1962 but wasn't completed until 1971. While the route is completely within Canada the roads to the Northern Territories are very limited. Fortunately there is now an economic and military impetus to expand our presence in the North. Both the Mackenzie Valley highway and the Grays Bay road to the Arctic coast (Coronation Gulf) near Kugluktuk (formerly Coppermine) will finally connect all of the Provinces and Territories within Canada.
The electrical grid is probably the most fragmented network we have in Canada. Each of the regions is connected in a North South configuration with no national East West connection. It's great for selling and buying power to the U.S. but again it leaves the country as a whole out in the cold. Another national priority should be building out an intereconnected trans-Canada grid that optimizes in-house electrical production and consumption.
Even more pressing is the need for a sovereign digital network whereby all Canadian data traffic stays within the country and beyond U.S. surveillance regulations never mind potential data tarriffs and service interruptions. It's estimated that currently 25% of Canadian internet traffic "boomerangs" through the U.S. as data gets routed through hubs in Seattle and Chicago. Fortunately this is now a federal priority with the government planning to finance a coast to coast sovereign broadband backbone.
Yet another sovereignty issue is the global payment system of which the U.S. dominates with over 50% of financial transactions going through its institutional rails such as the Visa and MasterCard networks, and SWIFT the global financial communications network. This also gives the U.S. the power to impose sanctions on countries such as Iran and Russia by forbidding U.S. banks to maintain accounts or transmit payments for sanctioned foreign banks, and to sever any connection to the global dollar network. Because of sanction risks and U.S. dominance, alternative payment systems are in the process of being set up by Europe and the BRICS bloc to process financial transactions and Canada has launched its own Real-Time Rail payment system as well.
Canada has a rich history in satellite communications which are another critical component of national sovereignty. In 1962 Canada became only the 3rd country in the world to launch a satellite, named Alouette, into space. Its objective was to study the Earths ionosphere to improve long-range high-frequency radio communications. In 1972 Anik A1 was launched, making Canada the first country in the world to launch a domestic commercial communications satellite into geostationary orbit bringing live TV, radio and telephone service to remote northern communities. In 2019 the Canadian Space Agency and MDA launched the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) a fleet of three satellites with 24 hour all weather imaging capability sent up to provide daily maritime surveillance, disaster management, and ecosystem monitoring. Recently the Canadian Space Agency, MDA, and Telesat Lightspeed have announced a program to put 298 low earth orbit (LEO) satellites into service to deliver sovereign, high-speed connectivity for enterprise, government and military markets. As part of a military-enhanced communications project this will now be expanded by adding another 69 dedicated defence satellites. Being dependant on another country to provide you with a communications network is a disaster as the Ukraine recently discovered when the U.S. ordered a temporary shutdown of Starlink which was providing their military with critical communications about incoming Russian missiles. It should be noted the Starlink network has over 10,000+ satellites representing 75% of the LEO satellites in space.
As Canada begins the process of rebuilding its military network, our country's most visible manifestation of sovereignty, the choice of suppliers is critical. The deterioration of our U.S. relationship has forced us to make a long overdue diversification of trade and a strengthening of other partnerships, particularly with Europe. We have already decided to buy 12 new submarines from Germany and Norway and now we are trying to decide who will supply our new fleet of 88 fighter jets, the U.S. or Sweden. The choice should be obvious and it isn't the U.S. The F-35 is more expensive to buy and operate, isn't suitable for northern Canadian conditions, is very complicated to maintain and, most troubling of all, uses U.S. controlled software that creates operational dependencies. The Gripen on the other hand is faster, battle tested, well suited for harsh Arctic environments, uses open architecture software that guarantees sovereign independence, and is offering Canada the opportunity to build the airplanes here in Canada under license which would create 6,000 - 10,000 jobs.
True sovereignty is something Canada has struggled with since its inception. First we had to shake off British control only to fall into the arms of the U.S. Over the years various forms of trade and foreign affairs disagreements have come and gone but for the most part we were quite happy to give the Americans the benefit of the doubt and take their side. We also quietly surrendered our sovereignty over most of our networks. With Trump's policies this has all been upended and, as we start to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, we will look back at this period and thank him for helping us shed our complaisance and get focused on our sovereignty.
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