Thank you, Chair.
Generals, thank you very much for making time to be with us today and for your service and that of the team that is with you as well.
This is the first time the Standing Committee on National Defence has engaged on the topic of space, so there is a lot we don't know. I don't think anyone around this table would call themselves an expert in any respect. I think we're all very cognizant that there's a lot we don't know, and I'm really looking forward to this exercise today and over the coming weeks of the study so that we can understand those things that we don't know and that we need to understand better.
We've framed the study in such a way that we're trying to get an understanding of the role of space in national security and sovereignty, the role of space in how we fulfill our international obligations with international partners, and the role for Canadian technology and industry such that Canada can maintain its position as a leader. I'm hoping that today we can cover all those things, although maybe not in the six minutes.
Maybe I could start with the last item I mentioned.
We're seeing increasingly that the private sector is being turned to in order to get things into space. Right now Canada doesn't have a domestic launch capability. We're working hard on that at Maritime Launch, but this brings up the question of collaboration and co-operation and even interdependence with international partners. I wonder if you could talk about the role of the private sector in Canada and elsewhere in the world in achieving our space objectives.