Other than knowing people who were actually in the department writing the policy, then, the government didn't reach out to you for your actual input.
Now we are hearing that the government keeps saying that we're going to hit 2% even though there's no budget for it and it doesn't show up in the defence policy update. It was announcements that were made in Washington during the NATO summit, and, of course, they were trying to save face. Every time it's been asked if they could share the math on where they're going to increase it, they've been hiding behind cabinet confidences.
Actually, if you look at the briefing notes that were given to us by the Library of Parliament researchers, you will see that they actually say that the DND and the CAF spending authorities for the year 2023-24 total just over $30 billion, accounting for only 0.95% of GDP. That's direct spending out of the Department of National Defence. Of course, in 2017, the Liberals started doing their creative accounting, adding in veterans' pensions, our civilian Coast Guard vessels and things like that, which actually aren't even a paramilitary fleet. That's the only way you can pad the numbers up to 1.3% for that year.
With the limited financial resources that have been invested—and you talk about strategic planning—where does air defence fit into this?
Professor Huebert, you talked about the nuclear threat, the missile threat. Where does Canada make those investments in that list of priorities?