It has been proposed to us, and it is an excellent suggestion, that multi-year contracts be signed for those contractors. Instead of renewing the contracts every year or going about it piecemeal, we could sign three-year or five-year contracts with contractors who know the list of harbours they are going to be handling.
In emergencies, they would be able to do the work without having to follow a long process that takes months when we need something done in a few hours or days.