Thank you very much, and I'll be sharing my time with Mr. Opitz.
I do want to take a brief moment, Mr. Chair, to extend our best wishes to our colleague Mr. Brahmi as he recovers in hospital. I'm sure he'll be reading these transcripts and listening in, so we want to wish him a full and complete recovery as soon as possible.
I also certainly want to welcome a fellow British Columbian, the honourable Minister Findlay, to the table here. I wanted to ask more about the LAV III procurement. As the minister said, it's become the army's workhorse. Certainly, it played a key role in allowing our forces to operate in Afghanistan with a higher degree of safety than some of the smaller vehicles that initially accompanied our troops when they went to Afghanistan. Unfortunately, we also know that a lot of Canadians died in accidents involving these vehicles. We know the modern battlefield has an ever-growing threat of IEDs and other threats.
Regarding the LAV III upgrade project, the main estimates show that National Defence has requested $299.6 million for this project. Could you explain where we are in the procurement process, as well as what this project will provide for our army?