Thank you, Chair.
I think we need to go about this study very quickly. I don't think we need to wait until September rolls around. There are a lot of other issues on our plate.
This is a pretty important decision, or potential decision, in terms of the cost to Canadians. Also, Mr. Hawn just made reference to decisions about what our needs are for the next 40 years. So we're looking at a long-range strategy here, and doing that in military terms you really are crystal-balling the future.
What I've heard so far has been fairly flippant, such as that these jets are going to do what the F-18s do only better for the next 40 years. We do really need some sort of analysis of where this could fit into a potential strategy and what our needs are. We're very actively studying peacekeeping right now and what role Canada should be playing in that. We have a retired major-general from the Canadian Forces who was the former commandant of the national defence college in Kingston, Major-General (Retired) Leonard Johnson, who has been critical of the strategic need for an aircraft of this nature. I'd certainly like to hear from him.
If there's anybody else who has a perspective on that, we can add a couple of names to that part of the witness list. Other than the kind of comments we just heard from Mr. Hawn and we've heard from the minister, I haven't seen any serious military analysis demonstrate what exactly is the need for these new jets in the future, and not only that, but even if we do need to have a certain number of these aircraft in terms of our commitments to NORAD, etc., whether we actually need 65. Do we need 25 jets? Do we need 20? Do we need 35? All of this is just thrown in front of the Canadian people with a price tag of $16 billion and everybody is expected to swallow it whole.
I think we owe it to the Canadian public to investigate this more fully.