Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you both for coming today. Welcome back, Mr. Bland. I haven't been here when you've been here in your other role, Mr. Williams, but welcome today also.
It's been a real surprise to me, and it's been articulated already as we've gone through these hearings and had the various ministers and their officials here, that there is not a political person, a minister, who is finally accountable and responsible for the decisions. As one of the other members said on the committee, you would ask one minister a question--I asked one minister a question about his area of responsibility, and he said “That's not me, you'd better ask the other minister”. That's been a real surprise to me as a new person on this committee, the way it ping-pongs back and forth, and that there isn't one final person responsible.
I wanted to ask you why you chose the Minister of National Defence, after having worked through Public Works, why that was your choice.
The other question I had was around the issue of the procurement process. You've been on the inside of the process, but away from it for several months now. What are your views on the decisions that were related to the C-17 and the intention to go ahead, now, with the C-130J Hercules?
I have three or four questions here, and I'll get them all out and hopefully you'll both have time to respond.
The government has put out a plan now for $17 billion in defence procurement. You've made some strong recommendations around the procurement process. Given what Mr. Bland said and others have said, that the need is very pressing, would you think that these purchases should be held up while there's a reform of the process, or should the ones that are in the pipe already go ahead?
I'm also very interested in the issue of search-and-rescue planes, coming from British Columbia and the complex nature of search and rescue there with the mountains and the ocean and all of that. I think it seems to be really delayed, and I'm wondering what you could tell us about that.
The last comment I want to make is that I certainly agree with whoever said that we should get the position papers of witnesses to members of Parliament before the day of the meeting, because it's quite bizarre that you want to have informed discussion and debate at committee, yet you don't know what witnesses are going to say until they appear. When I was a member of Parliament in the early nineties, we did get the position papers ahead of time, and that gave you time to read and ask perhaps more informed questions.
The last comment is about the agreement on internal trade, which I think came out of the CF-18 decisions that were made. Now in this procurement, it's been negated through making a decision that the national security issues prevail. So I would like comments on that as well.
Thank you.