Thank you, Mr. Christopherson.
I'll allow Mr. Fantino to respond directly to the issue of fixed-wing, but let me say that the issue of confidence that Canadians can have in the men and women, the SAR techs, is what counts here. The equipment they need—I agree with you—is extremely important. The Buffalo, like the Sea King helicopter, is an old aircraft. It has served remarkably well, and the people who maintain them deserve tremendous credit for the work they do each and every day.
You would know, as I mentioned earlier, that we have a huge country. Arguably, the largest search and rescue territory in the world is found here in Canada—larger than continental Europe. We have some estimates of 20,000 people a year who benefit from the efforts of these SAR techs and their aircraft—1,200 lives saved; 8,000 incidents.
It is noteworthy that there have been a number of tragedies. Many of these are affected by the time in which the search and rescue crews are notified. In the incident in Newfoundland and Labrador that you're aware of involving Burton Winters, a young man, it was some 20 hours before the Canadian Forces were contacted to take part in the actual search. I say this only because there are a number of factors other than equipment that impact on the effectiveness of search and rescue.
But the aircraft you're referring to, the Buffalo—the fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft—is slated for replacement. It is in the National Defence budget, it is found in the Canada First defence strategy, and we have every intention of replacing that through a competitive, fulsome process.
But I'll let Mr. Fantino speak to this.