Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you for being with us, Minister. General and deputy minister, thank you as well.
I want to talk to you about the Bagotville base. I'm a bit surprised to see that there appeared to be no estimates concerning the reconstruction of two facilities that are important for safety. First, the landing strip is at the end of its useful life. It was built in 1974. Every morning or regularly, military personnel pick up rocks on the strip because of the damage they could cause by entering the engines. The strip has been resurfaced on three occasions, but it is no longer possible to do that because the concrete is too thin. So this is an urgent matter. Even the base commander recognizes that this is a priority. Consequently, I'd like the budgetary appropriations to give priority to reconstruction of that strip in 2008.
Hangers 2 and 3 are also obsolete. The roofs leak. They've even removed the insulation from the roof space because it was falling on people's heads. This is a matter of safety. I'd like this to be recognized as urgent work and that it be entered in a program.
This past summer, Mr. O'Connor before you came and announced an expeditionary support squadron. In 2010, we are supposed to have 250 military personnel. I would have expected to see infrastructure planning in the estimates, but I see nothing.
Was that announcement serious? I'd like to have a timetable and infrastructure plan.