Government Operations committee  It was a firm on.... I can't remember the name. I will get it to the committee, sir.

Government Operations committee  The Coast Guard looked at leasing and in the end decided that the better objective was to purchase, so that they can maintain that ship throughout its life.

Government Operations committee  It was a Coast Guard decision at the end of the day. The Coast Guard in the end decided that they would like to have a purchase so that they can maintain the vessel as part of their fleet through the remainder of its service.

Government Operations committee  I think they're working out the arrangements around the management of it, because of the sensitive information in the RFP. There have been exchanges of correspondence between the PBO and the deputy minister on this.

Government Operations committee  The deputy minister has written to the Parliamentary Budget Officer offering to provide the RFP and making arrangements around.... People have particular security clearances—

Government Operations committee  It's the RFP for surface combatants.

Government Operations committee  That will have to be worked out with the deputy minister and the Parliamentary Budget Office. The request has been for the RFP, as I understand it.

Government Operations committee  The Department of National Defence does all the costing in “Strong, Secure, Engaged”. They're responsible for doing the full life-cycle costing of those. I'm not sure if they've included it in that or not. That's in the Department of National Defence.

Government Operations committee  They do the full costing of those projects, including the life-cycle cost. That would be more in the realm of when you start operating and maintaining a piece of equipment, which is their responsibility.

Government Operations committee  That is absolutely a key issue. On the west coast with Seaspan in Vancouver, we're looking at options on how we could accelerate the start of the construction of the joint supply ships project as a way to help fill in the gap there. That work is going on right now.

Government Operations committee  The design work is under way right now. The question is, are there parts of the design that are sufficiently well established that could move to early construction? That's what's being looked at right now.

Government Operations committee  That's the point we're trying to move on now.

Government Operations committee  We're in the act of negotiations with the yard on this right now, so it's on both parties to finalize this.

Government Operations committee  I don't have those numbers in front of me.

Government Operations committee  We're quite hopeful we can minimize it substantially with this step. That's the work that is going on right now.