National Defence committee  Yes. Our job, again, is to make the reserves exciting, to make it so they're as valued as any other sailor in the navy, and stop making this distinction of reserve versus regular force. It's one navy. It's either part-time service or full-time service. It's to speed the amount of

National Defence committee  These are all great questions. There is a very large staff in Ottawa working on making sure we do the best, given all of the constraints that are in defence procurement. One thing I would say from my level is that we have to prove and sustain that we are a globally deployable,

National Defence committee  There is a role, a place, and a time for every type of submarine, whether it's a conventional boat like the Victoria class or a Japanese boat with air-independent propulsion or a nuclear platform. There is, in the alliance and partnership world, a really valuable contribution to

National Defence committee  I'll just finish, ma'am, by saying that our role as force generators has been to review the cycle program of the submarines, which is a very complex maintenance and operational cycle. Our role has allowed the cycle activity of the boats to be refined, and the endurance of the boa

National Defence committee  Sir, it's a great point, and it's a great point of concern for our ship repair men and women, and I don't...I'll never reduce that. In fact, one of my roles is always to promote the fleet maintenance facility, ship repair, and other trades personnel to show the value proposition

National Defence committee  Yes. What we seek in our navy is to be globally deployable from any of our two major bases. There's no restriction on a warship from Maritime Forces Pacific ending up in the Mediterranean Sea on the NATO Reassurance mission. Likewise, there's no restriction on the east coast flee

National Defence committee  That gentleman up on the VDC—my colleague—in a functionally led navy has issues of recruitment and retention in his brain, but I manage, of course, retention and the forces that keep people in, just as he does, because I generate sailors and generate combat capabilities. Our job

National Defence committee  Art....

National Defence committee  You were in the force development world prior to being an operational commander.

National Defence committee  I'll start. As you understand, the Halifax class modernization was an exhaustive effort that took an entire class of warships, the principal combatants of the Royal Canadian Navy, not completely out of service, but.... The readiness of the fleet dropped as you put so many ships

National Defence committee  Winter will still occur 20 years from now.

National Defence committee  If not, then—

National Defence committee  Sir, perhaps I can answer the last piece about military elements of the capability. It is the centrepiece of a whole number of capabilities invested in by the Canadian Armed Forces, by the people of Canada. The C-17 is fully an Arctic-capable strategic-lift air platform that deli

National Defence committee  Both Admiral McDonald and I play a supporting role to the Royal Canadian Air Force in delivering this capacity to our navy, and it is a major chunk of a warship's capacity. You can't diminish how important it is. It is the Royal Canadian Air Force, to my mind, that has to answer

National Defence committee  Today, the country made a very deliberate decision to modernize the Halifax class, and that has delivered. The modernized Halifax class is in the top tier of military capabilities on this planet. It has only 20 years, and it won't hold at that tier forever. Today, I am confident