Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I think the minister more specifically committed to a fair, open, and transparent process. Government officials, as I said in my opening remarks, had been watching and doing an analysis of both the statement of requirements and what was available more broadly in the marketplace.
Clearly we had participated in a fair, open, and extremely rigorous process from 1997 to 2002, when the Boeing proposal was unsuccessful over the Lockheed Martin proposal.
Officials looked at that, and with our colleagues in Public Works asked, first, was that was sufficiently transparent? Was that sufficiently rigorous, fair, and open? As well, did it deliver the solution that here, in 2010, was the most appropriate solution in terms of cost, operational performance, and so on?
Obviously we were of the view that this was a rigorous and fair and transparent process.