Thank you, Chair.
I'd like to thank you all for coming.
I'm sorry I missed an opportunity to speak to the minister. I was hoping to pass on to him my compliments to your department and to the CF on the work in Haiti in particular. I know that Canadians hold Haiti and Haitians in special affection and have a lot of compassion for what happened there. Obviously there are lots of reasons for that, not the least of which is the respect and esteem that the Governor General of our country has, and the large Haitian community that we have in Canada. We're very delighted that our country and our forces were able to respond so quickly and so effectively.
I would like, Vice-Admiral Rouleau...and you're just the man to do it, being the naval vice-admiral. There was some confusion. I call it that because I don't know the rights of it; I hope you can set us straight, from your point of view, on the role of our ships going to Haiti. There is some question as to whether they were in fact to deliver humanitarian aid or not, and whether they were capable of doing that.
In that context, I'd like to ask you about the joint supply ship, which is the project under way. I would consider it to be, I suppose, from the naval point of view the equivalent of the C-17 in terms of being able to deliver supplies, handle troops, or do other activities.
Would you like to comment as to whether the joint supply ship, if you had one, would have been of use in the Haitian operation, and tell us what this confusion was? There was some media attention, particularly in the Halifax area, about the use of Canadian ships in that mission.