Evidence of meeting #30 for National Defence in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was aircraft.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB
Mr. Chair, I absolutely reject that, completely and wholeheartedly. I am very familiar with this program; that's part of my job. I'm very familiar with aircraft and air power. Yes, I've known Colonel Burt for years. I know the kinds of questions we want answered, the kind of information we want to get out to the public, which is the truth about this program. So I'm going to ask questions.
I know him very well; he's a very thorough, well-prepared individual who is going to come to a meeting like this with all kinds of stuff. I don't know that he's bringing charts because those are the kinds of questions I want answered, because that is the kind of information that needs to get to the Canadian public. It's the kind of information that you guys need to listen to, frankly, because you have some experts here.
Yes, I have some expertise in this, so I know the questions to ask. And yes, I have a pretty good idea of what he's going to say, because I know the program and I happen to know Colonel Burt. But what you're saying is absolutely false, and I object to it strenuously.
That's all I'll say. You are off base completely. You want to penalize me for having knowledge of the program and being able to ask the questions and get the answers the Canadian public needs to know. I'm not going to apologize for that and I'm not going to stop it.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Dominic LeBlanc Liberal Beauséjour, NB
I have another point of order. I asked Colonel Burt for the exact number of times that he and his staff visited Lockheed Martin, Boeing and the European officials of the Eurofighter. I can understand that he did not have a chart prepared to answer that question.
However, Mr. Chair, you might want to ask him to provide us with that information. I am not necessarily asking for a coloured chart, only something in writing. The numbers for 2009 and 2010 would be very useful. Thank you.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maxime Bernier
Thank you, Mr. LeBlanc.
I would like to inform committee members that our budgets were approved this morning. We can therefore proceed as we had planned.
I would like to thank both of our witnesses, Lieutenant-General Deschamps and Colonel Burt.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maxime Bernier
Our next meeting will be next Tuesday.
It will be an in camera meeting with the analysts. They are going to present to us the report we asked for after we received some answers from the government. We have to work with a sort of report.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maxime Bernier
It's on arctic sovereignty.
Thank you very much.
Thank you to our witnesses.
That ends the 30th meeting of the Standing Committee on National Defence.
