Thank you for your question.
Is there a need for icebreakers in the military? As you know, we have icebreakers in Canada. The Canadian Coast Guard is world class in terms of their expertise in keeping shipping lanes open when they need to be open in challenging conditions. In fact, quite often, even the U.S. Coast Guard is uncomfortable to move in the north without Canadian icebreakers present, or at least that's my understanding.
In terms of whether we need them and how long we need them, I would be offering an opinion. I think the Canadian Coast Guard may have a much better opinion along those lines.
Do we need icebreakers in the Canadian Forces? No, I don't think we do. We need ice-capable ships. There's a difference. An icebreaker is optimized to actually create a path for shipping through conditions that would not otherwise permit ships to pass. Ice-capable ships can break through a certain amount of ice, and while different capabilities give you the ability to operate in different areas, this gives you an ability to operate where the water is frozen over again, but not to the extent where you actually have to go and smash a channel through it.
Do we need ice-capable ships in the Canadian Forces? Yes, I think we do. By the time we get them, will there be any ice in which we need to be capable? Yes, I think there will. Winter is going to come every year, and every time winter comes in the north, the water freezes. The ocean freezes.
Currently the ships we have in the Canadian navy are relatively thin-skinned because they're designed to be fast, they're designed to be light, and they're designed to operate in different types of environments. They can go up north under certain conditions, but we have to be very careful of where they go in the north.
In order to establish a naval presence in the north, I would say that ice-capable ships are a useful instrument. But do I foresee a high-speed chase through five feet of ice up in the north? No, I do not. I think this is about presence. This is about being able to go places in our north where we're expected to be. It's about seeing this as whole-of-government and making sure that the large investments we're making in capability in the north make sense for Canada and Canadians. And for the part of it that is reasonably Canadian Forces capability, we're working towards it at the moment.