I get up at 5:30 every morning, Minister.
This is important because, basically—
I'll say that in English.
In spring 2005 the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies published a paper called “Implementing Canada’s Defence Policy Statement”. General Hillier says the following:
As to the question of material resources, before I criticize anybody outside the department I'd like to look inside and sort ourselves out. First, there is responsibility for me, as Chief of Defence Staff, and with the advice of the Armed Forces Council, to define for those big transformational equipments what the requirements are. I'm not talking about 15,000 pages of specification. I'm saying when we need a helicopter or aircraft or a fighting vehicle or a ship I am going to articulate four to six key principles--lines in the sand,
—He said “lines in the sand”—
if you will, that will become the driving force in the acquisition process.
Then he said, at a certain point:
I need advice to help shape it, but I'm going to do that. So for a helicopter, I'll say that I need to lift this much, at this altitude, this temperature, over this distance.
Ultimately, this means that you are not doing much as Minister of Public Works and Government Services to improve the transparency of the process. The Defence Chief of Staff, Gen. Hillier, tells you what he wants. Basically, your role is confined to making sure that he gets the equipment he wants.
Is this how you would define your role?