We are transferring, as I think the committee is aware from previous discussions, the Terry Fox and the Louis S. St-Laurent from our maritime region to the Newfoundland and Labrador region. The transfer of the Terry Fox took place effective as of April 1 of this year. The transfer of the Louis S. St-Laurent is scheduled to take place on April 1 of next year.
In terms of the actual cost, as I've explained to the committee, the primary reason we're transferring the vessels is that we would have to spend at least $10 million in additional upgrades to our facilities in Halifax to accommodate those vessels at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, when we feel we can accommodate them in facilities in Newfoundland without that type of a cost.
The Terry Fox will operate out of our base in St. John's, so we are not expecting any additional costs there. We're planning to home-port the Louis S. St-Laurent out of Argentia. We've estimated about $100,000 or so as a cost for electrical hookups and minor work of that nature.
I think the other point I'd like to make in relation to the transfers is we have agreed to a five-year transition period, to facilitate the interests of the crew, so no one would be forced to move, and that would give us time to ensure that anyone who didn't want to move was placed in other vessels in the maritime region. We have a committee involving the bargaining agents that's doing that work, and we're making pretty good progress, given our demographics.
In a nutshell, I think that is the current situation.