Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I agree with Madam Fraser. It is a priority for this authority and it has been for the last three or four years, certainly with the appointment of the new chairman, and we will do the best we can, as fast as we can.

Public Accounts committee  It's a term that my company and the shipping industry in the world have been using. Sometimes we use the word “accident” or “incident”, but we always seem to revert to the word “incident”.

Public Accounts committee  Absolutely everything.

Public Accounts committee  Anything from dropping an anchor when you're not supposed to, to hitting a bridge in Montreal.

Public Accounts committee  Absolutely not. On all the foreign vessels you do have a qualified pilot, and on the Canadian ships you have qualified people who are licensed by Transport Canada. So there's absolutely nothing that I can think of.

Public Accounts committee  What we've done in the past when we have spotted ships without the proper qualified individual is we've informed the St. Lawrence Seaway authority. They control the system. And that ship has been tied up until a properly trained individual is put on the ship.

Public Accounts committee  Correct. Every time they come back, for the next 100 years, we verify everything they do. So yes--and that's happened once in my 24 years.

Public Accounts committee  The biggest compromise was recognizing their own training system that they have for their officers. It was not a huge compromise, though, because the system allows us to do verification and ensure that the individuals who complete the program are properly trained. Our compromise,

Public Accounts committee  There are four major shipowners that represent 99% of Canadian vessels. We are talking about four or five companies.

Public Accounts committee  It's very hard to speak for the ports and what money they need for infrastructure and whatnot. Certainly, for the Great Lakes Pilotage Authority, none of those funds are required. But I think the ports have their own association that....

Public Accounts committee  The fees are high enough to cover operating costs, but too low to cover the accumulated deficit.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, we do. Each year, in either October or November, we get together with industry officials and try to estimate costs for the coming year. As Ms. Fraser noted, for 2009, we are projecting a deficit of over $1 million, with a 30% decrease in traffic. This is a problem that will

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  To obtain a pilot licence, the individual has to be highly trained; they have to know just a stretch of a river, maybe 60 miles of it, inside and out, without charts and without the aid of electronic equipment. That licensed pilot becomes our employee, our expert. The navigation

Public Accounts committee  The people who are sailing on the Canadian ships are not called pilots; they're called deck watch officers. So whatever they obtain will be a pilotage certificate. The people we employ are pilots who are solely employed by us. I guess your question is if the Canadian officer co