Thank you for that question.
I'll answer the last question first. The SAR trade is actually healthy. It's slightly over establishment, in fact. We have no problem recruiting our SAR techs. We're slightly ahead in numbers, which is good, because it is a trade that's prone to injury, as I think we're well aware. But the trade itself is healthy, which is good news.
SAR, writ large, is clearly an important mandate that we have on behalf of Canada to provide the ability to respond across our vastness both in land and ocean. We are the biggest SAR region in the world because of our ocean approaches on three fronts, plus our land mass. We have 18-million square kilometres to be able to react inside of. Over the last 64 years, we've been mandated to do SAR, since just after World War II. Our system of search and rescue has evolved. We've learned as we've done it, as we've expanded the mandate and our capabilities. We've become a lot better at doing SAR over those decades.
I think what we find right now is a system that's in balance. We have highly skilled individuals with good platforms—although we definitely want to refresh those platforms so they're viable into the decades ahead. But the system works: It's a good system, and world class. I have no doubt I can put up our SAR crews against anybody in the world and they will do extremely well.
So the question becomes our responsiveness. I believe we have the agility right now to respond in a way that meets the general demand. Clearly the Arctic is a challenging area. As we saw recently, only a few weeks ago we had to do probably one of the toughest SAR missions I've ever seen and, of course, it cost us the loss of one of our SAR technicians, but we saved those who were at risk. The Arctic is an unforgiving place. Therefore, we are looking at our training and equipment to make sure that when we're called upon to operate in the Arctic, we will do it to the best of our ability and so that we can ensure success when we go out the door.
All in all, I think we are in balance. We are where we need to be, writ large, to be able to deliver SAR across the full spectrum of the demands in Canada, and in a way that is both resource-sensible and, in the end, that's able to actually save lives.