The Coast Guard amazes me, given the amount that they are asked to do with so few funds and so few ships. I mean, they are instrumental. They have one fleet and sort of two seasons to deal with everything, such as making sure that resupply happens in the Arctic, making sure that commercial ships are able to make it down the St. Lawrence, and marine rescue. It's an unbelievable portfolio, so to consider adding more mandates makes me a little nervous because I think they're running full tilt, and I don't see them having much more room to add much more, but it's part of a conversation that maybe Canada needs to have, and everything is interconnected.
Our Coast Guard is different from the U.S. Coast Guard, which has what they call title 10 and title 14 capabilities. Under title 10 they actually come under the U.S. forces and become like a warship. Under title 14 they're under homeland defence, and they're doing more constabulary work. Our Coast Guard doesn't have that constabulary function, except for the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act in the Arctic.
I think the time is now to have that conversation with the new commissioner about where she sees the Coast Guard in the future. I think a lot of people are surprised that our Coast Guard is limited to sort of the safety mandate, but given how important that is, given the environment, and given that commercial traffic is so vital to Canada, I would be very cautious about expanding their role precipitously, because I think that those other functions, which are vital, would be impacted.