Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, General Parent, for joining us. You occupy one of the most senior positions in the Canadian Armed Forces and I congratulate you on your appointment.
I want to ask one question. This committee was in Washington and Colorado, I believe it was in 2013, as part of this study, and there was a lot of talk at that time about budget cuts, particularly in the U.S. with sequestration and rolling cuts going forward. Of course, we in Canada are now experiencing the same kind of thing.
I wonder if you could comment on whether or not these budget measures have affected the state of alertness of NORAD, the readiness posture, domain awareness, and other standards that you had been operating under and think are important to continue. Has there been a decline or decrease in any of those postures, domain awareness or other standards?