Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you and good afternoon to our witnesses. It is certainly an intriguing topic by any measure.
In light of the previous discussion, I'm mindful of the minister. Even though we're dealing with it in the context of and through the lens of the Investment Canada Act, which has the net benefit test but doesn't include national security tests, clearly the RSSSA does.
Citing the same article as Mr. Staples did—which I have also reviewed—I note there are some serious questions about the issues around licensing, and so on. I'm going to direct this to Mr. Garneau if I can, because you're the one witness here who has the ability to look at this from the CSA perspective, as you were there during this period from 2001 to 2004. It would appear from our discussion today that the die is in many respects cast here. Is that what you would say? This was a contractual agreement between the Government of Canada and a privately held company, MDA, with shareholders, and there were certain deliverables agreed to in the course of those agreements.
I've been struggling here to understand how a simple change in the shareholdings of that particular company would change any of those contractual arrangements or obligations that the company, or its parent or successor company, would have.
Mr. Garneau, would you have any comment on how any of this would change those obligations?