Transport committee  The stakeholders, I think, can be put into two categories. The first is the shipowners. We consulted quite extensively with the marine sector and shipowners through their various associations, such as the Canadian Shipowners Association and the Shipping Federation, and I think they were very positive.

Transport committee  There's an existing mechanism called the international oil pollution compensation funds, the IOPC, which is run out of London. It handles the oil spill regime. In all likelihood the secretariat that handles those types of administrative matters would also handle the HNS funds as well.

Transport committee  I would say it would be leadership in driving the convention forward. The convention was first tabled and agreed to in around, I think, the mid-1990s. Certain countries presented some challenging issues with regard to enabling it to come into law, so Canada took the lead in bringing these countries together to try to resolve the issues that were outstanding and came up with an agreement that actually turned into the existing convention.

Transport committee  That's correct. Just to be clear, the domestic fund would not be accessible for all products, but just for the persistent oil products.

Transport committee  This is what the administration of the IOPC in London, the organization that I mentioned, would be setting up: who would be paying; who would be levied. It would be their responsibility. The 6,500 substances that are covered are under IMO provisions, and the IOPC is linked with the IMO.

Transport committee  Maybe I'll jump in, as this is very similar to the question I had previously.

Transport committee  Yes. If there's an amount of $500 million in claims coming in, and they're all valid claims, the first step, as Mr. Marier said, is that all claimants are treated equally. They would probably get 80¢ on the dollar as a first step. If the government decides that it wants to step in and make up the difference, it can choose to do so, but there's no requirement for that to happen.

Transport committee  The ones that experienced the damage would pay the difference, yes.

Transport committee  First and foremost, the government does have a parallel initiative to look at provisions to increase the oil spill response regime. As my colleague Mr. Lachance mentioned, we're working towards a world-class tanker safety system. The government announced certain measures last spring towards that system.

Transport committee  It already exists in the MLA for oil spills, and for the current regime we have for oil spills.... I think you were referring to the Gulf of Mexico and Kalamazoo, which were oil spills, not chemicals. Just to be clear, too, when you refer to the Gulf of Mexico, what we're talking about here is oil spills from ships.

Transport committee  The scope, yes.... The Marine Liability Act would apply to the Arctic area as well. It's pan-Canadian.

Transport committee  Whatever this bill covers: if those 6,500 substances were being carried in the Arctic, it would cover those 6,500 substances as well.

Transport committee  That particular piece of work was part of the work we are doing under the world-class tanker safety system, so it was pertaining to the compensation liability for oil.

Transport committee  That's correct.

Transport committee  I think the convention was actually signed around 2010. There was a lot of work leading up to the signature in 2010 over, I'd say, five to ten years. It actually started back in 1997.