Thank you, madam.
It takes longer to go into the north from British Columbia than from Nova Scotia. A submarine leaving Halifax will take about five or seven days to reach the Arctic, it could stop over in St. John's, Newfoundland.
It is important to have a submarine anywhere in the Arctic, although probably not in Alert, but rather off Baffin Island, for example. That sends a very strong signal to other countries that might send their submarines to our inshore waters. That's a very important aspect.
The Government of Canada will have a number of tools in the box for applying naval power to best strategic effect anywhere in the world, based on the advice that I provide to the Chief of Defence Staff. I certainly agree with you that we can see, and we'll probably see in the future, opportunities to forward deploy a submarine out of Halifax, perhaps to be forward-staged in the Mediterranean or somewhere in the vicinity of Africa. For example, last year or the year before, the Dutch deployed a submarine in a very effective counter-piracy mission. Similarly, if regional tensions arose in southeast Asia in a way that compelled the Government of Canada to act through a naval presence, then we could forward deploy a submarine via Hawaii or Guam, for example, and operate from there.