The consequences are fairly easy to describe. The retirement of current refuellers and the delay in the construction of joint support ships have led to capacity issues, which have a ripple effect. Owing to the capacity issues, Canada is unable to support and maintain those ships at sea if it needs to deploy them elsewhere. We have to ensure that other allies are with us. We cannot do that by ourselves. That is the first consequence.
The second consequence is that it is very difficult, almost impossible, to organize training for a group of vessels at sea. Training for a group of ships poses the same challenges as does deploying a group of ships elsewhere. That is the second challenge.
I think the third consequence is the most challenging one. I am talking about a potential lack of skills or loss of skills among seamen—those who work aboard refuellers to facilitate the deployment and commissioning of new refuellers.