Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Ross, for joining us this morning. I too am interested in the joint support ships, or joint supply ships, as they have also been called. It seems to me that a lot of people were disappointed at the end of August 2009 when the government declared the bidders to be non-compliant and essentially cancelled that round of proposals.
My information was that the government long knew that the ships could not be built for the amount that had been designated back in 2002. Correct me if I'm wrong, I understand the figure was set by the government as to what the value of this project was back in 2002. These were shortlisted design projects going on in 2008.
My understanding was that the bidders had told the government that it could not possibly be done for that amount of money and that the government didn't take into account the cost drive—you call it your cost drive—and the fact that this cost had risen considerably since then. The whole thing ended up being...I call it cancelled, but obviously it's not cancelled. It has to be started again.
Is there a figure that has been set aside for this project now? If so, how can you be sure that this can be done within that figure? Are we cutting the garment to fit the cloth?