Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Gerard McDonald, and I'm the assistant deputy minister of safety and security at Transport Canada. I'm thankful for the opportunity to be here today to discuss ongoing improvements to environmental programs and policies that fall under my purview

Environment committee  Thank you for that question. We have been looking quite extensively into the issue of certification of pilots on the Great Lakes. I should clarify that presently all international ships that enter the Great Lakes do require that a pilot be on board. It was only the question of

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  That would be the coast guard.

Environment committee  Are you talking about the response, the cleanup?

Environment committee  That's correct, yes.

Environment committee  I believe so. I'd have to verify that, but I believe it is.

Environment committee  That would be speculation. We can't respond to that question, not knowing the details of the particular incident.

Environment committee  I don't have that information at hand, but I'd be happy to get back to you with respect to the various caches these organizations have.

Environment committee  That's correct. There are four response corporations across the country with which shipowners are required to have response agreements.

Environment committee  It's a difficult one to answer. Certainly, if we look at the east coast of Canada, it has the largest number of traffic movements at this point, roughly about 3,000 vessel movements, as opposed to about 50 on the--

Environment committee  That's correct.

Environment committee  No, I don't think so. I know the coast guard has repositioned some resources as a result of that risk analysis, and I'll let Ms. Thomas answer that portion.

Environment committee  I'm sorry, I'm not aware of another study being done.

Environment committee  Okay. I'll have to look into that. I'm not aware of this particular study to which you're referring.