Merci.
I have lots of questions, so hopefully the answers won't be too long.
I'd certainly like to thank Mr. Leblanc. We've worked together before.
You're right that the distribution of Canadian troops is horrendous. Ten years ago I brought this up here. In the two areas we had sovereignty claims against us, Nunavut and Yukon, out of our forces of 60,000, or whatever it was, we had zero in Nunavut and four soldiers in the Yukon. That's absurd. You pointed out that the poor distribution continues, and that there's a lack of any search and rescue north of 60, which I've been saying for five years.
My first question is on the reserves. It was recently announced that four reserves would staff the north. For a long time we've been asking for a reserve in the north, but these four are going to be in the south.
Do you not think there should be an attempt to at least employ northerners in one of the reserves, to have one of the reserve units stationed in the north, if the four of them are supposed to be covering the north?