National Defence committee  They have, actually. It's very complex. The analogy I've used is that what we're doing here is detecting radio frequency signals from ships. The International Maritime Organization, many years ago, mandated that every ship above a certain size has to transmit a signal saying who it is, where it is, what the cargo is, where it's going, which port it's from, and so on.

National Defence committee  What we saw in the presentation was information that was gathered from a satellite that COM DEV designed, built, and launched.

National Defence committee  That's right. That's in orbit now. It has just celebrated its first year in orbit.

National Defence committee  That's right. It's interesting because we built this satellite in seven months, which is an incredibly short period of time. When speaking to the United States Coast Guard about that timeframe, they were very impressed that a company could do that. The purpose of this particular satellite was just to demonstrate the capability.

National Defence committee  Yes, we do. COM DEV is a very successful company. We export 90% of what we make, and we're profitable and growing. We've been in dialogue with various agencies around Canada for a long time. We've been working this project for four years. We actually have some activity funded by the Department of National Defence.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman and honourable members, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today on the topic of Arctic sovereignty. My name is John Keating. I'm the CEO of COM DEV International, a Canadian-owned space company. I think the issue facing us as Canadians is well understood by this Parliament and this committee, so I will not belabour it here.