Yes, sir, certainly. Thank you very much for the question.
The Arctic is assuming a greater and greater strategic interest for Canada and, certainly, from a sovereignty surveillance or patrol and presence perspective, the government sees the Canadian Forces sustaining a greater and more persistent presence there. From a naval perspective then, through the Canada First defence strategy, and ignited by the national shipbuilding and procurement strategy announced by the government earlier this year, we will see the Arctic offshore patrol ship 628 being built on the east coast soon, with the first ship being delivered in 2015 and one every year thereafter. That will increase substantively our ability to operate in the high Arctic through the navigable season, including in and through first-year ice and what we call old-ice occlusion. That project also includes the Nanisivik naval facility at the high end of Baffin Island, which will see a refuelling facility that will help to sustain our deployed presence there.
I would say to you that when ships deploy from Halifax to go to the Arctic, it's about the same as deploying across the Atlantic to the English Channel; and equally from the west coast, it's about the same distance as deploying to Japan. When we deploy ships domestically out of Halifax and Esquimalt into the Arctic, it is a major operation. Therefore, the infrastructure that will be developed in Nanisivik will certainly aid that.
We are also working very closely with our whole-of-government partners here. With all federal departments that have maritime jurisdiction, we are working together in the Arctic to be able to respond collaboratively across a whole number of events, tasks, challenges. That's what we do every summer, as you are aware, as we deploy for Operation Nanook.