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“The decision to share imagery products with Ukraine has had no negative effect on Canada’s ability to use Radarsat-2 for other purposes, including those supporting the defence and security of Canada,” he said.

But DND business planning documents for 2014-15 show the Canadian Forces has warned it is facing a “critical shortage” in funding access to Radarsat-2 imagery.

Government budget cuts have left the military scrambling for that access, according to the documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.

“The use of Radarsat imagery in support of the Canadian Forces operations has been growing over the past years,” the planning documents warn. As part of cost savings, DND and Canadian Forces have faced “an imposed reduction” on access for Radarsat-2.

Federal departments were to receive $445 million-worth of data collected by the Radarsat-2 satellite in exchange for the government’s financial contribution to building the satellite, which is owned and operated by MacDonald, Dettwiler of Richmond, B.C.

But the spacecraft has become so essential, particularly for the Canadian military’s surveillance of the country’s coastlines, Ottawa is fast using up its data credits.

Unless it provides more money, its surveillance time will be used up by summer 2017, documents show.

Calandra also declined to answer May’s questions about which foreign governments were consulted on the decision and what were the exact terms of the agreement with Ukraine’s military.