That's a very good question, Wayne.
I was part of Public Works during the initial stages of development of the shipbuilding strategy. What is commonly misunderstood is that they're not guarantees of contracts. By signing the umbrella agreements with the two shipyards, they are essentially first right of refusal. In other words, if you cannot negotiate a fair contract on commercial terms, then you can seek alternatives. What we're saying is that under the current plan for the government—under annex A—which was to give the east coast shipyard the CSC to build an AOPS and the west coast shipyards the Diefenbaker and the JSS, these have already been discussed but no contracts have been awarded, for example, for the JSS other than for a definition phase.
There is room to make adjustments in those programs, or to realign them. For example, if we were to build a second ravitailleur Resolve class vessel, that would allow Seaspan to start building the icebreakers, which are very urgently needed. Under the current plan, Seaspan will not, in reality, be building those until close to 2030. That'll make the Louis S. St-Laurent 70 years old. We can't continue to sell vessels that are single-hulled vessels in the Arctic, and at the same time make and implement the Arctic protection plan and insist that all commercial vessels be double-hulled.
The problem is that the Coast Guard and navy fleets are rusting out faster than they can be replaced, and the program needs to be adjusted to allow additional capacity to bring forward all of our capabilities but also to replace those vessels, and all within the terms of the current agreement.
There would still be plenty of work for Irving and plenty of work for Seaspan, but now you're adding capacity to allow Quebec to participate and to fill those gaps, because what we proposed, the Asterix, which we're delivering to the navy next month, is actually considered an interim solution, and it's a lease, so that's how we've gotten around the issue with the NSS. The government is leasing that vessel with the option to buy, but there's no reason why the government cannot implement the other needs by including Davie, simply by amending the NSS.