Thank you, Minister, for being here today.
I want to talk a little bit about the just over $12 million put towards NATO in the supplementary estimates. I know that recently Canada has shown its strong commitment to NATO. I want to go back to a decision that you recently made that followed a decision that had been previously made about the AWACS program, the aerial radar program.
The Harper Conservatives chose to pull out of that program a number of years ago. They justified it using the following reason—that the move makes strategic sense because Canada is looking to develop its own systems, especially when it comes to drones: “Fundamentally, it is about a better way for the government to focus our defence spending, and we’re trying to put more of our defence spending towards Canadian capabilities.”
It was later questioned in the Ottawa Citizen, in an article dating back to December of 2014. It was reported that the previous government's decision to withdraw from NATO’s AWACS program created “quite a problem” for NATO, and that the withdrawal placed the program in a “precarious position”, according to Deputy Commander Paddy Teakle.
Earlier, in February of this year, you announced when you were in Brussels that Canada would be rejoining NATO's AWACS program. I'm wondering if you can speak to the benefit it provides to our allies in our rejoining the NATO AWACS program.