Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank you for coming before us again. We appreciated the previous briefing and had said we'd love to meet with you again, so here we are. I'm sure we won't have time for all our questions, but I'll try to find some good ones for you so we can have some really good answers.
I'd like to put the first question to the coast guard. I'm a great admirer of the coast guard; you do important work. We looked online at the original estimate and the statement by the coast guard that the asset base is at a high risk and it's critical that action be taken. So you obviously must be delighted that, as you say, we're moving forward.
I'm a little confused, though, about some of the estimates given. The report posted online under Fisheries and Oceans lists a cost of $1.2 billion over seven years, which includes the polar icebreaker and four science vessels. But then when I look at another breakdown, the AOPS is $3.1 billion. In the Vancouver Shipyards.... There actually isn't a price that I know of for the polar icebreaker, or for the offshore science vessels.
Can you tell me if you're on track for what you think the costing will be to provide, and if those are the basic, necessary ships that you need, to deliver your mandate?