Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
To the witnesses, thank you for being here today.
As I've said before, I haven't served myself. My grandfather was in the navy in the 1950s. He served on the Athabasca and on the Skeena in the boiler room, among some other ships. He has the tattoos to prove it. I grew up admiring those and his service in the navy.
As a result of that, this summer I chose to participate in the Canadian Forces program for parliamentarians, and I was able to sail with Commander Jamie Tennant on HMCS Montreal. I would just say to my colleagues here that if you haven't done that yet, you need to take that opportunity. If you're lucky enough to get on the first leg of the Great Lakes deployment, as I was, you should choose that—the Halifax–Trois-Rivières segment.
I want to talk about that a little, and about the Great Lakes deployment, and Operation CONNECTION. Could you perhaps describe that operation, its goals, and the positive benefits you've seen as a result of it?