Mr. Chair, before you start my clock, I want to give notice of the following motion.
That the committee undertake a study of no less than eight (8) meetings to review how the readiness of the Canadian Armed Forces is impacted by Canada’s procurement processes and the capabilities of our defence industry to ensure that the Canadian military’s needs are being met. And that the Department of National Defence, Canadian Armed Forces, Public Service and Procurement Canada, Office of the Auditor General, Parliamentary Budget Officer, Treasury Board, defence industry, military procurement experts and academics be invited to testify before committee on this matter; and that the committee report its findings and recommendations to the House.
We have that in both official languages, and we'll circulate it.
I will start my lightning round of questions.
First of all, I want to thank all the witnesses for being here.
The government has proposed Bill C-26 as a way to encourage industry to have a stronger cybersecurity defence. There have been a lot of concerns raised that the fines and penalties are overly prescriptive and brutal for individuals and companies, but yet these same types of fines and penalties aren't applied to the government itself.
I'd like to get feedback from Mr. de Boer in particular, as he represents a Canadian industry here. I do miss my BlackBerry phone from back in the day.
Who's responsible for protecting critical infrastructure, including in the private sector? Is it the Canadian Armed Forces, the Department of National Defence, CSE or the Government of Canada as a whole, or is it best that it come from the individual companies? You can also touch on the issue around available people, because the Business Council of Canada says that currently we have 25,000 unfilled positions in the cybersecurity world.