Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair, I would like to iterate our support for Mr. Bachand's request for you to reconsider the motion. I don't know how that could have been misconstrued, because we're just asking for the same courtesy that past governments gave to past defence committees so we can do our job. So I'm glad that you have agreed to look at that again. Hopefully we can have our regular briefings, and as you say, we'll be able to be more informed and be able to do our job in a better way.
I have two questions. One has to do with the deployments.
We have, I think, six-month deployments, and you yourself, Mr. Minister, said we're probably going to be there for quite some time. Given the small numbers that we have in our armed forces, how fair is it to send our troops back five or six times, which is probably going to happen? If the past teaches us anything about that part of the world, it's going to take quite a while to get to the position where the local government and the local armed forces and police can actually take over.
It must be terribly hard for anybody to be in that situation that often. I know our guys are tough and they're doing a great job, but there has to be an end to this. How are you going to address that particular problem in our commitments to NATO, given our small numbers in the armed forces?