Thank you, gentlemen.
I'd just say that I'm a little more interested in the future than I am in the past. It seems to me that the minister's decision has been made. We can go over it as much as we like, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me to spend a lot of time doing that.
When we look at the future, I'm trying to find a common thread between both of you, and I think what I'm hearing you say—I don't want to put words into either of your mouths—is that you could see a structure where the Government of Canada would buy Radarsat from MDA, both Radarsat-1 and Radarsat-2 presumably, and then what? I guess what I'm asking is what is your view about what the relationship should be between the public sector and the private sector going forward? That's the first question. And the second question would be how do we deal with this problem that led to the sale, which is the company's concern that in order to maximize its capacity to take the technology and have it more widely used, it needed to get into a much bigger market than only Canada can provide?
I'm asking the question quite sincerely, because I don't have a magic solution in my head, except to say that the Canadian market is very tiny. If we simply look at it as a national asset and say we're going to nationalize the whole thing, which is, I'm sure, music to some people's ears, there is a considerable question of two kinds. First, what is the cost on an ongoing basis of that kind of nationalization? Second, what is the ability of a nationalized company to actually function in the most efficient and aggressive fashion? That is another question that is subject to some considerable debate about the historical experience.
I'd ask you to reflect on that question and try to look at in as constructive a way as possible, and frankly not really concentrate on what's happened, because I think what's happened has happened. And whether we are critical of the decision of the government or whether we're in favour of the decision, it seems to me that there are enough flags wrapped around this decision that it's not going to come unravelled.
That's just my political judgment at the moment, so we should be focusing on where we go in the future.