I'm not aware of an international standard of readiness or preparedness that obliges nations to be ready. Absolutely, within NATO and other alliances Canada has signed up to, NATO being the principal one, there are expectations in terms of the readiness of forces, and we meet those expectations. Those are for chapter-5 operations that would involved defence of yourself or others that are under direct attack. Each nation is allowed to determine what it will do, as you say, but there is an attempt to set some standards or some targets to achieve in terms of the standards. I don't know if that's at all helpful to you.
We do what we think we need to do, so our policy is not governed by an alliance demand upon us. But we certainly would try to maintain participation within all of the standardization working groups that go on—be they for equipment, materiel, or otherwise—and also for the cumulative effect of that. In other words, are you ready to be able to respond? NORAD is a great case in point. NORAD would demand that we have aircraft able to respond to incursions into Canadian airspace. That is prescriptive, but it's because the government has agreed to that policy and has in fact made the policy.