Thank you for giving me that opportunity.
The first thing I'd like to say is that my heart goes out to the people who were lost, to their families, their friends, to the community. It was truly a tragedy. It was also a tragedy for the coast guard. Our motto is “safety first, service always”, as you know. It's weighed very heavily on the crew.
Like everyone else, I'm anxious to know what happened, how it happened. Obviously we have to await the investigations. There are three investigations. One is by the RCMP, which is still under way. They are determining whether or not there's any cause to proceed with any criminal investigation. The Transportation Safety Board, as I'm sure the committee knows, is investigating. They have the primary responsibility to determine the causes and the underlying factors. I can't predict how long either of those investigations will take.
We have an internal investigation under way that is focusing on assessing whether our internal policies and procedures were followed. That has started, as Minister Hearn has indicated. He's engaged an outside investigator to lead that investigation. We are hoping this investigation will be finished in the early fall, but it obviously will depend on how comfortable the investigator feels that he has a full handle on everything that he thinks appropriate to look into.