We were asked—in fact that’s the reason I took the job as president—to produce a long-term space plan for the benefit of Canada. We had an extensive consultation process starting in September of 2008. Over the following 18 months, we had round table discussions with all of industry. There are about 200 institutions that are involved with space in Canada. We had round table discussions with 23 universities and 14 government departments that are involved.
Each group wrote up what they thought this plan should entail, and we distilled that down to a long-term space plan. We have submitted that to the Government of Canada and it's in process right now.
It's my hope that it's made public soon, but it is in a cabinet process that we have to basically act out.
What that plan does is align with government priorities, which are safety, sovereignty, security, natural resources, the environment, and health. So we align with all of those.
The safety, sovereignty, and security, given the purpose of this meeting, is a major portion of what we can do. We can handle the northern perimeter, we can handle the western approach and the maritime approach, and all of those are part of the plan.
What's interesting when you do those kinds of things...the plan shows that if you want one outcome—and let's say that's the sustainable and economic development of the north—you need several assets to do that. You need the RADARSAT data that we now provide with RADARSAT-2 inside the plan. And three more of these RADARSAT-type satellites were approved in Budget 2010.
Let me show you this. The quality and the quantity of—