Transport Canada scaled back its summertime surveillance of the Arctic this year for pollution, endangered whale protection and marine safety, CBC News has learned.

The decision to limit overflights comes at a time of increased political and national security attention on the region and five years after the department promised to deploy a drone for heightened vigilance.

A series of leaked documents and sources show that senior department officials decided in the spring, around the time of the federal election, that the National Aerial Surveillance Program (NASP) would adopt a "reactive posture" when it comes to the region.

"We will have no presence in the Arctic this summer unless there's a need to deploy," the department's acting director general of aircraft services wrote in the sprin

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