There was a motion passed by the committee asking me to provide a report on the cost of the Canadian surface combatants and asking me to provide that report to the committee by February 5, 2021. The concern I have is that we are just getting data from various sources—DND and other international partners—that sometimes helps us to cost these significant government procurements. With this data just coming in, it will be very difficult for us to produce a report by early February.
The end of February would be feasible, however, taking into consideration the fact that we have to not only come up with the estimate and the numbers, but draft a report that is thorough while being relatively short and in both official languages, which is something very dear to my heart, obviously.
I would ask you to consider the proposal of letting the office and me present to you a report by the end of February.
If committee members still want to have a discussion earlier in that month, I would be happy to testify with any numbers what we have by that time. I could verbally speak about some of the numbers, but I don't think I can provide the report to the committee before the end of February, unfortunately.