Sir, I would say that internally, amongst ourselves, there are some concerns. The reality is that if there are delays, the impact will be particularly on domestic operations and Canada's sovereign ability. I think that is how Admiral Lloyd has expressed it to me. As for gaining access to refuellers and things of that nature through NATO in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and other places, more nations provide it and therefore can do it.
It's really about the ability of Canada to operate on its own, and that's where this commercial ship provides some capability. It is quite different from the warship that will be the joint support ship, to be clear, and that is why it is so important to us. We are working very closely in recent weeks with the shipyard in looking at what we can do to advance projects. We're seeing some success there.
Much as we look at the shipyards, I would say that sometimes the government side, as well some of our behaviour, approaches, or demands, actually inject problems and delays. We want to make sure we are being coherent on this strategy and in what we do.
There are no two ways about it: for the next half-century, having a naval task group with warships are combat capable is about having a military warship that not only can do replenishment but can also be part of a task group in terms of command and control, helicopter operations, etc.