National Defence Committee on Feb. 28th, 2011

Evidence of meeting #50 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 c-41.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

Bill C-41, An Act to amend the National Defence Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts

Committee Business

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Colonel Retired) Michel W. Drapeau (Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa

Ian Holloway Professor and Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario

Jason Gratl Vice-President, British Columbia Civil Liberties Association

Jean-Marie Dugas As an Individual

Julie Lalonde-Prudhomme Procedural Clerk

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB

Okay. The only consideration we really have with this is the statement of operational requirement. It's not injurious, from a national security perspective, but releasing it to the committee before the process is announced would potentially prejudice the competitive process we're going to launch on that.

The suggestion from the Chief of the Air Staff was to release the high-level mandatory capabilities, but not release the SOR until that process has been released to the competitors, because it would prejudice the competitive process.

5:25 p.m.

NDP

Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL

Which document is this now?

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB

Sorry, it's the statement of operational requirement. It's the last one on the first page: the statement of operational requirement fixed-wing search and rescue project, version 4.1.

Even if it is released, there will be some redactions, because there are some matters of national security.

5:25 p.m.

NDP

Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL

Is this not the version the NRC was reporting on?

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB

I'm not sure of the version. This was the 2006 version. I'm not sure whether there's a more updated version. I assume you would want the most updated version.

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL

Are we looking at the same thing?

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB

The last one on the first page.

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL

NSS-2010 backgrounder?

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB

No, it's DND 2006 statement of operational requirement. It's the bottom one on the first page that I've got here.

Oh, sorry, we laid that out in different format. It's the fourth one down.

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL

The fourth one?

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB

Yes, sorry.

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL

Statement of operational requirement fixed-wing search and rescue, version 4.1.

5:30 p.m.

An hon. member

That's it.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB

That was the 2006 document. I assume you want the most up-to-date one.

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL

That's the one the NRC was commenting on, isn't it?

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB

Yes.

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL

What about the most up-to-date one? Are you going to give us that one?

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB

I don't know if there's a more up-to-date one than that. I'm saying that releasing the most up-to-date one would be injurious to the competitive process.

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL

Well, I haven't asked for the most up-to-date one here. There may be an amendment proposing that we have that, but that hasn't been tabled yet.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB

I don't know what restrictions NRC may have had in the use of that 2006 document. They may have had access to the document with certain provisos that they had to protect some information. I don't know.

I'm just saying there was concern from the Chief of the Air Staff that some of the information is injurious to the competitive process, if it's released before release to the public for potential bids.

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL

We're not talking about the 2006 statement now, are we?

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB

I'm still talking about that one. NRC may have had access to the statement of operational requirement, but they may have had some restrictions on it because of the very thing I just mentioned. They want to be careful about compromising the competitive process, because it has to be fair and all that.

I'm just raising a concern.

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL

I understand the concern, but are you suggesting the statement of operational requirement would not be made available to people who were seeking to bid on the project?

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB

Well, of course, but not through this committee. It gets released to them as part of the bid package that goes out.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Maxime Bernier

Do you have an amendment to propose to that motion?