Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon.
I just want to point out that as a rule, I sit on the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. So then, you can easily understand why I'm very interested in the fishery and in search and rescue operations.
I was invited to work with Mr. Bachand on this issue on the national defence committee. I am pleased to be here and interested in hearing what you have to say.
First, I have a question of a technical nature. I will follow that up with a more general one.
You mention in your submissions that your aircraft can land on short runways. In concrete terms, what exactly does that mean? How many hundreds of feet of runway are we talking about? And under what types of conditions can they land? That is my technical question.
As for my general question, compared to existing models, how does your aircraft, the C-295, work better, regardless of the situation? It really doesn't matter what type of situation exists, since search and rescue aircraft always respond to extremely urgent situations where time is of the essence and where temperature and the elements can affect the success, or failure, of an operation.
What can you say to convince me that compared to existing models, your aircraft will ensure a better outcome? How will it make things better?