Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
When I see General Hillier seated next to General O'Connor, I can only wonder about what happened in the past months so that now we finally need C-17 aircraft.
I remember that I had taken a specific interest in this issue on several occasions. Obviously, we can criticize the previous government, but we had a $13 billion plan. We worked together with all our partners to make sure, as we all want to, that our troops get the best equipment.
Today, we heard that it is urgent to obtain C-17 aircraft and that Canada must come first.
General Hillier, you were on record saying that we didn't truly need this, and that what you were looking for at the beginning was only access to those planes. “Access” means also to lease them.
We spoke about DART. The problem with DART was not that we didn't have the equipment at that time. It was the political decision-making that has made it look as though we played with the timing a bit.
What happened, General Hillier, so that National Defence now wants C-17s? We know that NATO has already bought three of these aircraft, that we could have taken part in the agreement whereby you could have acquired these airplanes in 48 hours.
Now we're saying “Canada first”. Canada first means that you have to make sure we protect Canadian interests. Protecting Canadian interests—and my definition of “sovereignty”—means also that you are able to do your own maintenance of that equipment.
Now, with C-17s, because of the intellectual property, we won't have any access to it, and we'll have to invest a lot of money in Trenton to make sure that we provide even the first line of maintenance.
General O'Connor, why do we truly need those planes? The way I see it, I could have put the $3.4 billion into the condition of the troops, more trucks.... I don't see the rationale for it. Would you explain it to me?