I had many thoughts as I listened to you. I'm going to try to remember all the different components.
First off, I think the fact that Canada is not mentioned in any of these documents is not surprising. We tend to be the overlooked ally. It would be something that we would have to initiate to try to engage in cooperative measures.
I think this is something that the committee could usefully do. It's about engaging the United States and trying to think forward as to how we can cooperate in the north. Start with the threat assessment on whether Russia really is a threat. What is the threat? I've given you my sense of what the threat is. Get an assessment and then talk about how we can work together: “You patrol this side and we'll patrol that side.”
I think we need at this stage to move beyond where we've been for many years, which is competition in the north with the United States due to maritime boundaries, due to to their submarines being in our waters throughout the Cold War, and a difference of opinion on the Northwest Passage. I think we need to actively move beyond that to cooperative measures in the north. All of this is really driven by melting ice. That's why it's important.
On your specific question, I did look up the numbers yesterday. I was peripherally aware that the United States doesn't really have any icebreaking capabilities. If the numbers I saw yesterday are correct, it has two icebreakers; Canada has 18. South Korea has more icebreakers, I believe, than the United States, so they have a lot of catching up to do in that area.
I'm not surprised that it's in the national strategy of May 2013, that they need to build vessels. However, I would be surprised if they have a lot of icebreakers by 2017.
The United States has some advantages on the surveillance aspect because of their space-based assets, which we are not privy to because we said no to the BMD decision. They can bring those things to the table, and we could bring icebreaking capabilities to the table. It could perhaps be a bit of a trade-off thing.