Thank you very much. And through you, Mr. Chair, to the witness, thank you very much for the exposure we had earlier this week to some of the training that our men and women go through.
I want to change the focus a little bit, sticking with the theme of the preparedness of our Canadian armed forces and going more towards the humanitarian side.
Of course, I have the 8 Wing in my riding. We have purchased the tactical and strategic lift aircraft. A lot of people think it is pretty expensive hardware, using their hard-earned tax dollars to go to foreign places and do things.
But what many of us don't realize is that it affords us another capability, and I'm referring specifically to Haiti. Of course, you can relate what I'm about to say to some domestic things, such as floods, and forest fires, etc.
I'd like you to relate how you prepare and train for missions like the one to Haiti and how these differ from traditional military missions, because of the training involved and, specifically—because of our capabilities now—how our experience with Sri Lanka compares with that in Haiti, in terms of the timeliness of our arrival at the scene of a terrible catastrophe.
I'd like you to talk a little bit about the training there, because it's not the traditional military mission of protect, repel, and then neutralize, but about humanitarian efforts. So could you expand on that, please.