Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank our witnesses for appearing today. Also, I want to thank all three of you for your service to Canada in your role in uniform, and as diplomats and top public servants. You guys have been just amazing in the work you've done in protecting Canada and representing us on the world stage.
I'll leave aside the 2% and all the metrics that are there, although I do believe it is a metric that is an aspirational target that's been agreed to by all partners. It's something we need to aspire to and work towards, and we at least need to get our defence spending moving in the right direction.
We talk about procurement and how difficult it has been. Mr. Fadden, you were a deputy minister of defence. You know how this works and how slowly the wheels turn. How do we cut through some of these layers of bureaucracy and legalese, which make the bidding and selection processes so impossible and complicated? I look at what's happening in the U.K. and Australia, and they seem to have fixed it somewhat, but they're also facing challenges.
Could you talk about some of the ways we move forward on procurement?