Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. It's so great to see you here.
I don't have to tell you, as a fellow Nova Scotian, that my riding of Dartmouth-Cole Harbour includes CFB Shearwater and, of course, has CFB Halifax right across the harbour. We have a large CAF and DND population. On both sides of Halifax Harbour, we're building the Royal Canadian Navy's modern fleet. I also don't have to tell you that there's a lot of pride at home in Nova Scotia over these incredible shipbuilders.
The investments through Canada's defence policy, “Strong, Secure, Engaged”, are tangible. They're easily felt in the riding of Dartmouth-Cole Harbour and also in the riding of Halifax. They matter deeply to our community. I look forward to working with you to keep moving that forward and to keep enhancing and making those very important defence investments.
I was pleased to see that your mandate letter includes a commitment to expanding Operation Reassurance in eastern Europe. HMCS Montréal, as you know, recently deployed out of Halifax to join on this important NATO mission. Your recent announcement to expand Operation Unifier was also very good to see.
Minister, I'd like to talk about our commitments to NATO, especially in the context of Russia and Ukraine and the conflict there. You spoke about this a bit in your opening remarks. Are members like Canada increasing co-operation to support stability in the area? How is Canada stepping up to provide more support as a NATO member and as a very important friend to Ukraine?