Thank you very much for coming today and helping our study on procurement and the processes.
I think your involvement is crucial, because certainly some of the biggest tickets that will ever be purchased by the federal government will be coming through the Department of National Defence. I think that's why we really need to have a sense of how these procurements are done, to ensure taxpayers' interests are completely looked after.
We know the Prime Minister has announced a 20-year multi-billion-dollar strategy for ensuring that the armed forces have the tools at hand that are necessary. I suppose what was surprising about that announcement was that it didn't come with any white paper. It didn't come with a document that showed us where this road map for 20 years was.
The media says:
In a highly unusual move, the Conservative government will base its entire future rebuilding of the Canadian military on Mr. Harper's 10-minute speech and Mr. MacKay's 700-word address.
No actual strategy document has been produced, nor will be produced, according to government and defence officials. Neither speech went into any specific details about equipment purchases, costs or timelines or how the future strategy will unfold. Both speeches presented more broad-brush approaches to defence.
Mr. Paxton, who is Mr. MacKay's press secretary, said, “ It is not a 'document' like a white paper”.
This vision is in the speeches. That's the strategy.
I guess that's for public consumption, but surely the Department of National Defence would have an internal white paper of how this money is going to be spent over 20 years, would it not?