Transport committee  Maybe Mr. Rysanek in sunny Vancouver can explain a little more. Jerry, are you still there?

Transport committee  Mr. Volpe, your assumption is that if this vessel is unsafe, it can still operate. It cannot operate if it is unsafe, and there's a large liability just by virtue of the fact that it would be operating unsafely. If the operator wants to carry on his business in a reckless way, he will not be in business very long.

Transport committee  Thank you. It's my pleasure to answer that. There's a series of laws in Canada that prevent pollution. The main one, of course, in Transport is the Canada Shipping Act, and inside the Canada Shipping Act there are specific sections regarding pollution prevention and a series of regulations.

Transport committee  The line is determined by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Hydrographic Service, hence the importance of getting those famous points established and officially registered in The Hague. That is where the people who look after the international law of the sea are located.

Transport committee  Yes, it is established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It is done from each state's baseline. Under the convention, states establish points. Canada must actually register the points for its baseline and the 200-mile limit is set from that line, which is located just off the coast.

Transport committee  I think Indian and Northern Affairs is the coordinator for the entire northern strategy. We, as public servants in front of this committee, are here to talk about the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act and the power of the Minister of Transport to make regulations on that particular issue.

Transport committee  The actual regime, if you have ice or no ice, is the same. In the extension with this bill, we'll have an extended area that the act will cover. To get back to article 234 of UNCLOS, at this moment we still have jurisdiction over the economic zone. That's a little bit to get back to some of the answer to Mr.

Transport committee  We work together with the Departments of Transport, Fisheries and Oceans, and Natural Resources mostly to determine trends and to find out who is in the Arctic now and who will be there next season. It is a huge area and we try to focus our resources on places where there is activity.

Transport committee  Mr. Laframboise, I do not have those figures with me today. We know the exact number of ships in both the eastern and western parts of the Arctic. There is very little traffic in the new zone located west of the archipelago and north of the Northwest Territories. I can provide the committee with those details.

Transport committee  There have been very few environmental spills and they are very small. We can also get you that data.

Transport committee  There is little traffic in that zone. But there is some. We are presently conducting several geological studies in that zone, mainly in order to determine its oil and gas potential.

Transport committee  Thank you, Mr. Minister. We have at this moment a Dash 7 that is solely dedicated to patrolling the Arctic. It was actually deployed last year. This Dash 7 is part of the fleet of our pollution prevention system. It is part of a fleet of three planes that fly the Pacific, the Arctic, and the Atlantic.