All right. Thank you.
Mrs. Kramp-Neuman talked about contracting out as an expedient when dealing with the recruitment and retention crisis that has reduced the capacity of the Canadian Armed Forces.
On December 7, the deputy minister said, “I would also stress that we are in an environment where we are down in numbers on the military side. We're already asking civilians, where possible, to pick up some of that slack”.
I want to make sure this is clear in the testimony. When he said “civilians”, did you believe this meant contractors being given this additional capacity work, or that it hasn't increased on the civilian...?