Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the kind invitation from this committee to come before you again today. I'm always appreciative of the opportunity.
Today, I am joined by Deputy Minister Bill Matthews; Vice Chief of the Defence Staff LGen Frances J. Allen; Cheri Crosby, chief financial officer; and Assistant Deputy Minister Peter Hammerschmidt. I'm looking around, and I don't see Pete with us yet. We also have Caroline Xavier, chief of the Communications Security Establishment.
Mr. Chair, I wonder if I might take just a brief moment to advise this committee that this will be the last appearance of Deputy Minister Bill Matthews, who is being moved over to the Treasury Board Secretariat.
We have a new deputy minister coming in, but I wanted to take this opportunity, because he's been ably serving me, the ministry and this committee for a considerable period of time, to acknowledge him and to say thanks.