I'll move that motion, Mr. Chair.
I thank you for convening the meeting under Standing Order 106(4). As you know, both vice-chairs as well as Mr. Paul-Hus and I requested this meeting. I think all of us, as well as Canadians more generally, are quite concerned about the recent developments with the North Koreans' intercontinental ballistic missile testing, the reported capabilities they now have, and the concern of “what if?” We felt it was prudent, on behalf of Parliament, that our committee call witnesses to discuss Canada's capabilities, whether or not we're prepared and ready to deal with a potential attack, and of course the sabre-rattling that's coming from North Korea of using not just ballistic missiles but also other weapons such as submarines and dirty bombs. That's something that I think we should all be concerned about.
We asked that we have a meeting—or more, as required—to hear from the Minister of Defence, the chief of the defence staff, and other defence experts, including General Bowes as the commander of CJOC and General St-Amand as the Canadian deputy commander of NORAD, to talk about the threat assessment and what Canada is doing to ensure that we are prepared if, unfortunately, we do have an incident where an attack does happen. We think it is prudent and our responsibility to hear from those experts to determine the best course of action from a parliamentary standpoint.