I would like to return to the MOU. I reiterate this because it's of concern to me.
I appreciate the process by which that was started in 1997, but in terms of the future, to be masters of our own domain, to decide what is best for Canadian personnel, I certainly feel that what concerns me about this is that we have given away many elements of our own decision-making to a much greater cause.
I appreciate the fact that Burlington has some good work going on. I appreciate the fact that our people who work in this industry can do incredibly good work and compete internationally. But I also feel that Canadians also demand a dollar-for-dollar IRB in many respects, and I'm concerned that we have pushed this policy aside for reasons of stealth--for want of a better term.
Again, 3.2.1 of the MOU of 2006 states:
Actual procurement of JSF Air Vehicles by the Participants will be subject to the Participants’ national laws and regulations and the outcome of the Participants’ national procurement decision-making processes
I am concerned that we're forgoing that. In the beginning we said that we would have an open, transparent process, but we keep going back to a decision that was made in 2001. And it was one that was more of a done deal than anything else. That kind of freezes us out.