The capability planning and the requirements come from the client department. This would be a great question for the client department. It has a process to plan capabilities and to identify requirements. It has a specific panel, the independent review panel for defence acquisition, that reviews all the requirements. Then the projects eventually come to us at PSPC purely for the execution of the solicitation process.
Let's take the submarines, for instance. If we want a submarine in year x, then procurement should get to us in x minus y. These two, x and y, need to be tackled properly and well. You would almost think that for the big stuff the Canadian Armed Forces needs—the big fleet, fighter jets, combatants at sea, submarines, maritime helicopters—we would have a continuous capability planning cycle, because as soon as you get new aircraft, a few years later it's time to think about the next one, especially in today's world.
It's a fantastic question, and I don't want to say that it's a pet peeve of mine, but if there's an area where we could all collectively do better as a nation, it's the planning phase ahead of things entering what I call the pure solicitation process box.