It's something that we identified as a gap in information that was available to parliamentarians. We identified that as a gap before I was appointed, so it's something that was on our work plan the moment I stepped into the job.
However, there were a couple of events that prevented us from working on this issue, notably the pandemic and the fast pace of reports that we had to produce. That's why this was put on ice for a number of years, unfortunately. With the pandemic receding and Mr. Solomon becoming more available than he was before, we asked him to come back and complete the work that we had done, because we had identified that as a gap and also because of the sustained interest on the part of parliamentarians for information on anything that relates to national defence. For example, the moment we release a report on DND, be it on the operating or capital spending, the “Strong, Secure, Engaged” capital plan, or surface combatants, there is tremendous interest in our reports.
That's why we thought it would be advisable to provide that tool for parliamentarians and the Canadian public to look at different permutations, for their own interest and for the purpose of holding the government to account.