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 domestic ships and their need to carry a pilot. Right now, the way the regulation is written, certain domestic ships, if their masters are seen to have taken a prescribed number of trips on the Great Lakes over the past three years, are allowed to do their own pilotage.
We were, as you correctly state, criticized by the Auditor General for this--as was the Great Lakes Pilotage Authority, I should add. We've been working very closely with the Great Lakes Pilotage Authority, the ship owners, and the pilots to come to an acceptable regime to allow for the certification of domestic masters on Canadian ships on the Great Lakes. And we would hope to be able to prepublish a regulation early in the new year in that regard.