NORAD AND USNORTHCOM FOIA AND PRIVACY OFFICE — MESSAGE OF 23 SEPTEMBER 2026 (second message on the request of 19 September 2026). Text as received; sender's name and e-mail removed.

From: NORAD-USNC Peterson SFB N-NC SPECIAL STAFF Mailbox CSKA (FOIA) OMB [mailbox address kept: official FOIA mailbox]
To: danil.al.ukraine@gmail.com  Cc: the same mailbox
Date: 2026-09-23 14:26Z (08:26 MDT)
Gmail msg id: 1a0cea970f44653a  thread: 1a0bd3e7a8895ab8
Subject: RE: RE: Freedom of Information Act request — cost of the defence of Canadian territory and the NORAD mission
(second message from the office; first was 22.09 msg 1a0ca66b14800de6; our answer 22.09 msg 1a0cba668096cc1f)

Good Morning Mr./Ms. Dzyuban,

We appreciate your email and more narrowed scope for responsive records. USNORTHCOM is not required to engage in a "fishing expedition" or conduct a search that would completely disrupt its daily operations.
* In Item 1, "NORAD" together with "cost", "cost share", "cost-sharing" across 6 years of emails and electronic records for an entire combatant command will yield millions of digital hits.
* In Item 3, pairing the word "Canada" with common terms like "contribution," "defence spending," or "Arctic" across 6 years of emails and electronic records for an entire combatant command will yield millions of digital hits.
* NORAD as a bi-national organization is not subject to the Access to Information Act (ATIA) requests. In coordination with Directorate Access to Information and Privacy, personnel posted to HQ NORAD should not be tasked with ATIA requests. All records under the control of DND are subject to the Act, but documents and IT systems used by personnel posted to HQ NORAD are not physically under the Department's control.

While items 2,4 and the rest of items 1 and 3 are reasonable and can be processed as part of the perfected request; U.S. federal courts have ruled that agencies can reject a request if it is "unduly burdensome" or fails to "reasonably describe" the records [5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(3)(A)]. USNORTHCOM would likely use the combination of a 6-year window and broad keyword combinations to issue an administrative rejection.

Thank you for your understanding and we really do appreciate the ability to narrow down your request in order to process this as a "perfected" USNORTHCOM FOIA request. Once the request is perfect we will provide you with a case number for tracking purposes.

[name removed]
FOIA and Privacy Officer
NORAD and USNORTHCOM FOIA
Peterson SFB, Colorado Springs, CO 80914