Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate the witnesses coming before us today. Your testimony has been well received thus far, and I know that the work your department does--and of course the Canadian military does--is very substantial for Canada.
I just wanted to go over a few items that were raised in your presentation. I want to talk a bit about how you referred in part to the pledge stability and predictable defence funding that is planned for over the next 20 years as part of some of the announcements that our government has made in recent years. I guess maybe you could give us some testimony as to how that is beneficial to the military in terms of being able to operate in this modern world that we have, with all the challenges that you face. Perhaps you could also give some evidence as to how your opinion has been formed on that matter. For instance, the opposite of that would be a lack of stable projections, instability, unpredictable cuts, etc.
Perhaps you could give us some measure as to why that is so important to not only this department but to the Canadian military and its ability to operate in the global environment.