Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Many of us at this table come from a business background. I have had a number of businesses, and I am the chair of a large quasi-public corporation. I always felt it was my responsibility to unlayer the onion on behalf of the stakeholders.
In this case, the stakeholder is the Canadian citizen. With that in mind, I hope you'll understand the spirit of this next question. It is about the answer that we were given by Mr. Fantino on the F-35. He said that when it came to comparing ourselves with the Norwegians and their purchase, it was like comparing apples and oranges. I'm sure that before he would say that, he would inform himself of the accuracy of his statement. I didn't have an opportunity to pursue that with him; there was no more time. But in informing himself, he would no doubt rely on you.
You might not be able to answer this question here. If not, perhaps you could undertake to give this committee the answers later, but was a comparison done--as would have happened in any corporation I chaired--with other purchases to see whether we were purchasing apples and not oranges? If so, will you forward that information to the committee so that we can learn why one country is paying so much less for so much more when it comes to the F-35s?
Would you have undertaken that comparison? If so, while you might not be able to tell us now, will you give us all the information and the comparisons so that we know it's apples and oranges instead of all apples or all oranges?