Thank you. I was thinking more about spill response, but I appreciate the caution that was being taken.
A concern I also have with the use of the Amundsen for pre-drilling purposes is that the Office of the Auditor General and the Commissioner of Environment and Sustainable Development has made it very clear that this government is not at this point able to ensure Canadians that it can prevent or respond to spills. So there are no consistent or systematic assessments and no formal processes to assure that risks are being assessed. Knowledge of risks in Canada regarding ship-source oil spills is neither complete nor up to date. Emergency plans essentially don't exist. The coast guard doesn't have the systems necessary to ensure that its training and exercise programs can be delivered...and the list goes on.
So there are huge gaps. Was there any concern or consideration that if one of the coast guard's limited assets, this boat, part of its capacity to do what it's responsible for doing, was taken that this would actually further weaken the coast guard's ability to do its job?