Maritime Domain Awareness Across the Canadian Government

The Government of Canada has worked for decades to ensure strong Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). The technology for this has changed substantially over those years, and this essay will provide some information about MDA and the current state of the technology. MDA technology is invaluable, as it has an impact on search-and-rescue, competition for fishing and other natural resources, tourism, and community resilience. MDA has a wide area of focus that encompasses many government departments, including law enforcement, coast guard, fisheries, regulatory, defence, and customs. In order to facilitate interdepartmental inter-operability and cooperation, each department has policies and strategies for sharing maritime domain awareness as well as broader border situational awareness in support of operations and intelligence. The Government of Canada officially organizes its departmental and international cooperation through centres and commands such as the Marine Security Operations Centres and North American Aerospace Defence Command, known as NORAD.