Thank you very much for the question.
The points he makes are actually ones we have made in relation to the need for a greater presence in the Arctic, a greater presence in Labrador.
The plans he talks about, however, were plans of the former government without any funding to back them up. It was just a commitment made during the election—as I guess we're all prone to do—with absolutely nothing there to back it up. They talked about revitalizing a coast guard boat. We are very conscious of—and in fact there are major discussions under way among ourselves and DND, etc., about a presence in the north. We're talking about sovereignty and security, which are very important issues.
In this case, with the infrastructure, we need to save money in order to be able to do things with small craft harbours, maintenance, etc. We do have facilities in St. John's and we do have facilities in Argentia, and in relation to the work these boats would do, these areas are more suitable than any others. It wasn't a matter of taking them out of Nova Scotia and moving them to Newfoundland for the sake of doing so; that wasn't the case at all. It wasn't a politically conceived plan. The records will show clearly this was not raised by the politicians on either side. It is a plan that the coast guard has been working on for a number of years, and it makes all the sense in the world in relation to the new reconfiguration of the coast guard.
So I guess it's part of a long-term plan. It's what makes sense now in doing the right thing and saving as much as money as we can for the Canadian public.