Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for the invitation. It's good to be back in front of the committee again.
Just to remind the committee, Marine Atlantic is responsible for, on behalf of the Government of Canada, providing a constitutionally mandated service between the island of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.
We run a year-round service between Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, and North Sydney, Nova Scotia, along with a seasonal service between Argentia, Newfoundland, and North Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Our mission is to provide a safe, efficient, and environmentally responsible service. We run a fleet of four very large ice class vessels. We own three of those vessels, and we charter a fourth.
Each year we carry more than 300,000 passengers, close to 100,000 commercial units, trucks, and close to 100,000 passenger vehicles as well.
In terms of current service indicators, they are all very positive. Our on-time performance is over 90%. Our vessel reliability is running at about 99%. Most importantly, customer satisfaction is in the 75% range.
In budget 2017, the government announced funding of $445 million to support Marine Atlantic's operations over a three-year period. In 2017-2018 that funding will be utilized at $90 million for operations and $45 million for capital.
That amount of funding over the three-year period including 2017 and 2018 will allow us to meet our constitutional mandate and, most important, will allow us to continue to provide a level of service to our customers that is adequate and they feel is necessary.
Thank you.