Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I just wanted to mention how rich it was to talk about search and rescue and helicopters. I think we can all recall when the Liberals fought a campaign on the cancellation of the EH 101, which had several different versions, one of which was for lift and utility, another one transporting troops, and another for search and rescue. Of course, we still haven't had the replacement for the Sea Kings, which would have been one of the variations. The beauty of that contract was that they were all basically the same helicopter and we could have interchanged parts.
Now what we see, especially for search and rescue, is that when one helicopter is missing parts we have to cannibalize others in order to maintain that one in the air, which has a large effect on whether or not we can respond when a helicopter is required. There was mention made of some general [Inaudible--Editor] to pay $1 billion for BMD. The discussion has not occurred yet in Canada, nor do we know if it will be discussed in terms of that aspect. I just wanted to clarify that.
One thing I haven't heard about yet is the JTFN operation, where they sent a technical team to Ellesmere Island to perform maintenance on the high Arctic data communication systems. What is the role of HADCS?