Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
Welcome Minister and officials. It's nice to see you again.
I have a couple of questions—and, oh, before I start, I'm going to be sharing my time with Mr. Weston. I'm going to ask both questions, and then we'll turn it over to Mr. Weston after the answers.
I see in your brief that we have an increase of $283.9 million in these estimates, and that one of the reasons is the funding for the renewal of the Canadian Coast Guard fleet, both vessels and helicopters. I'm interested in that. Could someone please talk about the significant funding increase, and tell us what the vessels are, what we may have delivered, what we're going to have delivered, and where they may be built?
My second question is related to species at risk. When I look at the main estimates, it looks as though there is a decrease in funding, but I'm wondering if that's due to a sunsetting of a program. Could somebody address that, and also whether there are other species being examined that would be added to the list, or what is the process to do that?
Thank you.