Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
To update the committee and the honourable member on the current status of our major vessel builds, I'd like to confirm that the midshore patrol vessels, the nine midshore patrol vessels, 142-foot, for conservation, protection, and security are actually in contract with Halifax Shipyard. We look forward to cutting steel in the summer. The first vessels will actually begin to be delivered in the summer of 2011, so it's well in hand.
On the other two science vessel projects, the offshore oceanographic science vessel, the replacement for the Hudson, our request for proposals for firms to complete the detailed design work for that project is closing this coming week, and we hope to have in contract quite soon. It will take about a year to complete the design work, then we'll be in position to move to the shipyard to construct, with delivery in the order of 2013.
Similarly, with the offshore fishery science vessels--the replacement for the vessels that do the stock assessment work--it's a very similar track to that of the CCGS Hudson replacement. We're about to conclude the RFP process for the design work. In about a year, we'll be in a position to have the design in hand and then be in a position to go to the shipyard for construction.
Then, for the polar icebreaker, there was $720 million announced in a budget several budgets ago. That is on track for delivery and entry into service in 2017. That's a very major project and is taking longer than the others.