I'd be happy to.
First of all, it's the Chamber of Shipping that registers all the inbound vessels for their pollution response management contract. Under Canadian law, every ship that's coming into Canadian waters does have to sign up for a spill response in the event that there's an incident. We actually perform that act. We do it on behalf of the Western Canada Marine Response Corporation.
Here in Canada there are two primary response organizations that are appointed by Transport Canada: the Western Canada Marine Response Corporation, and the Eastern Canada Marine Response Corporation. Those two organizations function under guidelines laid down by Transport Canada. They are monitored by Transport Canada. They are audited by Transport Canada for their regular drills that they perform. The level of response preparedness is laid down by Transport Canada.
I'll be frank with you. The role of the chamber in the last couple of years has been to enter discussions with Transport Canada around whether in fact some of the guidelines could be improved and built upon. We're hoping that through the work of the three-man panel led by Captain Gordon Houston this will be the case. Their mandate, as you probably are aware, is to review all aspects of oil spill preparedness and response. To get to this point of having the panel, we have been very supportive of the government's desire to ensure that no stone is left unturned in terms of that level of spill response and preparedness.
The level of response that's mandated today is for 10,000 tonnes of spill response here in Canada. We certainly think that's something that could be reviewed. We certainly want to ensure that we are at least as well prepared as any other jurisdiction in the world. So we've taken quite a close look at Alaska. We've taken a very close look at our friends to the south in Washington state. A number of colleagues and I will be travelling to Norway to look at their response system next month.
That's the context we're in at the moment. Most certainly there's a strong desire because we recognize the public anxiety, and whilst we may feel that it's sometimes misplaced, we have to respect it. We have to provide that level of reassurance to the public that in the event that anything should ever happen—and we don't believe it will, but if it should—we have a more than adequate response capability and preparedness in place.