Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Through you to the witnesses, thank you for appearing today.
My questions will be basically to Ms. Sloan. I was particularly interested in your comments with regard to the Arctic/offshore patrol ships, that we are intending to enhance our country's ability to exercise our sovereignty over the Arctic.
You said we were the overlooked ally. Sometimes that's done on purpose because of certain aspirations concerning the Arctic, mostly by our friends. There are those of us who believe that in order to exercise our sovereignty we should have patrol ships that are capable of patrolling the very waters that we claim are within our jurisdiction.
So would you not agree that the threats...? When I talk about threats, I suspect the threat could be one of respect. When we talk about threats, I would say threat/respect in terms of what our ships may be confronting when they are on patrol. Could you comment on that?
When we speak about North America globally, what sorts of threats do you believe Canada and North America as a whole face in the Arctic, at the same time as threatening/respecting the jurisdiction of Canada and the United States. That is an area of our mutual concern.