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Canada-United States Defence Relations Generally

3. There was some discussion of the difficulties which Canada had in dealing with U.S. requests concerning proposed U.S. defence installations in Canada. The principal of these was the fact that Canada was not consulted at a sufficiently early stage in the development of plans. This resulted in delay in obtaining Canadian consideration of U.S. proposals. As an example, the situation concerning the Haines-Fairbanks pipeline was cited. Canada first learned of this project at the June, 1952 meeting of the PJBD, when Canadian approval was requested as a matter of urgency. The proposal required negotiations with the B.C. Government which have proven complicated and time-consuming, and thus have delayed Canadian approval. However, the concern of Canadian officials over this delay is tempered by the knowledge that a complete account of the project was published in a U.S. journal as early as December, 1951.

4. Another example of a case where lack of early consultation had delayed consideration by Canada of a U.S. defence project was that of the six additional radar stations which it was proposed should be located in Ontario. This proposal had first been advanced by the U.S. Section of the PJBD in June, 1952, but the information which Canada required prior to consideration of the proposal was not furnished until the September meeting of the Board. This project raises another problem of concern to the Canadian Government, i.e., the stationing of numbers of U.S. troops in populated areas of Canada, which is politically undesirable for a variety of reasons, and causes difficulty whenever it arises.

5. There was some discussion of the situation with respect to U.S. activities and installations in Newfoundland. It was agreed that the recent modification of U.S. proposals concerning Torbay, coupled with the current meetings of the M.C.C. on the question of command in the Northeastern area of Canada, had done much to ease the concern of the Canadian Government over the position there. In the discussion on this item, Mr. MacKay again drew attention to the firm Canadian policy that a Canadian commander must control air defence operations over Canadian Territory. He also reiterated the concern of the Canadian Government to keep the numbers of U.S. forces situated in populated areas of Canada to a minimum.

6. Mr. MacKay then raised the question of U.S. defence activities in the Arctic. He referred to Project "Lincoln" and expressed concern that it might be considered necessary to superimpose such an expensive scheme on the existing radar network. There followed a general discussion on the implications of Project "Lincoln", during the course of which it was made clear that it was recognized that the proposals involved had not, as yet, been accepted by the U.S. defence authorities, and might never be.

7. Mr. Raynor stated that he appreciated the Canadian position on these matters, and said that the State Department was endeavouring to improve arrangements for consultation with the Canadian authorities on joint defence arrangements. He expressed the view that the tradition of friendly relations between Canada and the United States was built upon frank discussion of difficulties as they arose.

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