Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning to the witnesses.
I want to pursue the question around the applicability of U.S. law should this sale go through. I want to ask those who are giving legal opinions.
Under the U.S. Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992, as I read it, in the regulations there are conditions that would apply to the licence, and these conditions would apply whether the licence is held in Canada or in the U.S. I'm quoting from these regulations. It says:
The licensee shall maintain operational control from a location within the United States at all times, including the ability to override all commands issued by any operations centers or stations.
This is the so-called shutter control right of the U.S. government.
Further, it says:
The licensee may be required by the Secretary to limit data collection and/or distribution by the system as determined to be necessary to meet significant national security or significant foreign policy concerns, or international obligations of the United States...
Now, I understand that foreign policy concerns and national security concerns are not defined, so they could be quite broad. This leads me to believe, in spite of the categorical assurances we've been given about Canadian control and Canadian law applying, that will not be the case once MDA is sold to ATK.
Can anyone comment on that?