If I understood correctly the answer given in question period today by the parliamentary secretary, the government has not decided yet to buy Super Hornets. He said it's something they're considering. So we seem to have had, from the time this was moved, a change in the government's position from a decision to a consideration. Given that that's the case, I guess I would say that this motion has become premature—which is a very weird of use of tense, since the government hasn't actually made such a decision.
Now, what we've always said is that the thing we're missing here is the list of criteria of what we expect jets to do and what we expect to use them for. Until we have that list of criteria, I'm not sure how any government, whether the previous Conservatives or the Liberals, has made decisions about fighter jets.
I think the committee doesn't need this; I think we need to ask the government to give us a clear statement of what the Royal Canadian Air Force has determined are the capabilities they need in fighter jets. Then the government could go ahead and conduct an open competition based on those criteria. Without those criteria, and given that the government hasn't made a decision, I don't think this motion should go forward.