Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Minister, thank you very much for being here today and thanks to the senior staff who are here with you.
We're here to talk about the supplementary estimates (B). I must tell you I was interested in hearing whether or not you were going to be increasing the supplementary estimates (B), or otherwise, what you were estimating in terms of the cost of our participation in Operation Impact. You've outlined what we're looking at: six CF-18 Hornets, two CP-140 Auroras, one CC-150T Polaris aerial refueller, 600 Canadian armed forces, and on and on. For a couple of months now we've been asking for the cost. We understand, according to General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff , that an estimate has been provided to cabinet. On November 24 the parliamentary secretary Mr. Bezan told us that government plans to release a copy of the cost estimate today—