Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
Minister, Lieutenant-General, Deputy Minister—
I think there's an open mic in the room somewhere.
It was great to see you at the Halifax International Security Forum last month, where, by the way, you announced funding to stand up DIANA. Thank you for that.
Those are the two things I want to talk about: the Halifax International Security Forum, or HISF, and DIANA.
Having attended HISF for nearly a decade now, I've been able to see first-hand the value it brings to the world's democracies in addressing and solving the challenges we all face together. Of course, there's a great benefit to Canada as the host nation and to Halifax as the host city.
At the same time, and complementary to that, is DIANA. As Mr. Fisher pointed out, it's something that Atlantic Canada wouldn't have even thought possible a decade or so ago. Our productivity and skilled labour supply lagged behind the rest of the country. In the past decade, we've seen a huge turnaround. In fact, the Public Policy Forum has called this “an explosion of innovation led by a new generation of entrepreneurs”. In fact, in Atlantic Canada our GDP per capita and growth in education attainment have outpaced the national average since 2015. DIANA is the reason we were successful in our “team Atlantic” effort to land DIANA in Halifax. It's because of this change in the ground rules.
Here are these two important things, yet HISF and DIANA are going to be voted on in the coming hours. It's unfortunate that our Conservative colleagues are poised to vote against both of them.
I'd like to ask all of you—whoever would like to respond—about the value HISF brings to the Canadian Armed Forces and our role in the world, and the same question about DIANA.
What is the importance of the innovation in the defence and peacekeeping space that will come out of DIANA? What is important there for our role in the world?