I could respond to that, Madame Chair.
The tank program was initiated urgently to replace our existing Leopard 1 tanks that we were in the process of taking out of service because the army had the view they would never need them again. Our Leopard 1s were not sustainable in terms of technology, spare parts, and survivability. They would not take the IEDs and bombs of the Taliban.
The tank project has two parts. One was a loan at no cost to Canada--not a penny--for 20 German Leopard A6s, which have the mine blast protection. With tremendous support from the German government, we deploy those directly to Afghanistan. Also, we have purchased 20 Leopard A6s, which are the best, most upgraded level, from the Dutch, plus 80 of an older upgraded version of the Leopard 2 tank from the Netherlands.
Because we immediately got the equipment, our efforts after the delivery then had to be in working with the Department of Public Works to get the spare parts to do upgrades for certain pieces of armour for the tanks in Afghanistan. That has been our top priority. My entire team has been focused on that for almost six months, to sustain the German tanks in Afghanistan.
We have completed the purchase with the Dutch. We are going to bring those tanks to Canada this summer. They will be brought back by our lease chartered roll on, roll off ships to Montreal. They will be put into preservation and storage in Montreal as we set up a repair and overhaul capacity early in 2009. Because they have been in storage and some electronic components will have to be replaced, in 2009 we'll gradually put those tanks through a refurbishment program. We'll take the engines out, if they need to that, to go through a normal engine rebuild process, etc. Through 2009 until 2011, the 80 Dutch tanks will be refurbished and upgraded if necessary and brought into the training system for the army regiments in Canada.
So 2011 is an end-state; it's not a beginning. We will have them all in Canada, in Montreal, this fall. And early next year, once Treasury Board has given effect to project approval, we will begin a repair and overhaul program and we'll start delivering those to army training facilities.
Madame Chair, did that give you a sense of that?