Thank you very much for that question.

As you said and as the minister highlighted, one of the main purposes of the national shipbuilding procurement strategy has been to rebuild the shipping industry. We've seen a great deal of progress on that in the first phase.

Irving Shipbuilding has invested over $300 million to upgrade its facilities. Seaspan on the west coast has done the same thing and has spent about $170 million of its own money. I've had the opportunity in the last couple of months to tour both those facilities and I can tell you that we now have world-class infrastructure in place that's going to be ready and capable of proceeding with the build contracts.

I think as the committee's well aware, the contract's been let for the building of the Arctic offshore patrol vessel. I'll use that as an example to highlight what the minister said. That's a large project and it will create spinoff benefits for companies throughout Canada, and not just in Irving Shipbuilding, because a lot of the value, a big part of the expense, is not so much building the vessel itself, but everything that goes onto the vessel: the navigation systems, the sonar systems, and so forth.

As part of the national shipbuilding procurement strategy, when contracts are being let, a great deal of emphasis is being put on value propositions and ensuring that there's ample opportunity and benefits to Canadian industry from that.

We're seeing that beginning obviously with the AOPS. As the minister said, we anticipate being in a position in June to see the start of the offshore fisheries science vessel for the coast guard, and we've started the very early stages of a process that will lead ultimately to a request for proposal for the Canadian surface combatant.

These projects are now at the takeoff stage, under way, and they will generate significant spinoff benefits throughout the country for all kinds of firms.

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