Mr. Chairman, yes, I felt Laurie would correct something I've said. He's got a good habit of doing that. He sort of corrected something. Around estimates, the committee traditionally has been quite flexible. It is a spending item, and I think it's a good-news story—certainly a good-news story for our navy, and it's a good-news story for the men and women who work in shipyards around the country—so I was hoping to give the minister a chance to offer us an infomercial about his government's investment in shipbuilding.
But more seriously, Mr. Chairman, the minister perhaps could give us a sense of the timeline. I know that a lot of workers in the shipbuilding sector around the country are interested in when we could expect to see specific announcements around the designation process of different shipyards. Could the minister reassure us that in fact the timelines are on track, that he doesn't expect any slippage with respect to the procurement process?
Finally, could the minister reassure all of us that the report that some of the procurement may take place as part of a joint venture or an agreement with another country--for example the United Kingdom--is in fact speculation, and these ships would be built by Canadian workers, in Canadian yards?