Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to those who spoke to us this morning. All of you have provided some good content.
I'm going to start with Professor Huebert. There are a couple of things that you acknowledged and that I would like to underscore. First, you mentioned that we need to demonstrate that our defence is seamless. I couldn't agree more. Second, you acknowledged that the best way to avoid conflict is to defend against it. Again, I couldn't underscore that more.
What I'm going to be speaking to today is the shortfalls of personnel that require urgency and priority.
My first question is for Professor Huebert. Yesterday, retired General Rick Hillier suggested that the personnel problem in our Canadian Armed Forces might be worse than the one in 10 shortages the current CDS spoke of. He suggests that the numbers he is hearing from within the military are such that we can muster a force of about 45,000 and, within that 45,000, a significant number are not operationally deployable today.
If that's accurate, it's truly staggering and it would mean that we are pushing 50% surge capacity in all areas: NORAD, NATO and other domestic deployment. If he's right, do you believe that critical shortage means the collapse of the Canadian Armed Forces?