Thank you.
I think the civilian oversight here, through a combination of historic parliamentary traditions that I'm sure we share—and the opposition critic has mentioned question period and other processes.... The idea of having the minister appear for four hours on estimates is a new phenomenon and, as Cheryl said, was a proposal that was put forward by the government when they were the official opposition.
I think it's a bit of a work in progress, frankly, but in my experience—I've been a minister, not of defence, but a minister of the crown—and with the structure that is employed by National Defence, with a civilian deputy, a chief of defence staff, and others briefing the cabinet regularly on questions related to defence, the balance that is struck here is an enviable one, born of some application of modern governance concepts and the historical parliamentary piece.
With those two things together, I think it serves as a model for modern governance in terms of civilian oversight—in the case of defence, but also in the case of the police and of other, similar entities that serve the country. One needs the expertise, but at the same time, I think the civilian oversight is critical.