Public Accounts committee  The three medium icebreakers were the subject of a multi-year process where we started out doing an industry pulsing to see what was available on the market. The world market for used icebreakers is very small. Canada was fortunate to acquire the three medium icebreakers from a company in Sweden through Chantier Davie, which was the exclusive Canadian broker for that company.

Public Accounts committee  The vessel life extensions are individually contracted. They are competed for through Public Services and Procurement Canada. Sometimes we look to bundle ships to provide greater opportunity for industry to schedule their resources over a longer period of time.

Public Accounts committee  That's a good question. First of all, they are both icebreakers, so that's the apples to apples comparison, but they're really very different ships. A medium icebreaker is in the range of 6,000 tonnes. A polar icebreaker is a 24,000-tonne ship, so it is a significantly larger ship, with heavier steel, given the higher icebreaking requirements of the ship.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much, Deputy Minister. Madam Chair, the Canadian Coast Guard currently has 26 large vessels, and the $2 billion that you have referenced speaks to the vessel life extension budget for that entire fleet of large ships. Given that some of the ships will remain in service until early 2040, it's envisioned that we're going to be 16 to 18 years cycling the ships through the various vessel life extension periods, which sometimes can take 8 to 12 months to complete.

Public Accounts committee  Thanks very much. With respect to commonality, both shipyards will leverage the design that was done—the ship design, the hull form and the general layout of the ships—and that has been completed. In the interest of minimizing in-service costs, we will identify a number of key systems for which we are looking to incentivize the yards to select the same equipment.