Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here tonight, and for your patience and flexibility with the House and its schedule.
That being said, let's jump right into it. I would suggest that under the previous government, in 2007 to 2015, National Defence directly issued a total of 70 sole-sourced contracts. This government has issued 6,838. It's nearly a hundredfold increase in sole-sourced contracts awarded by DND directly.
Ms. Carr, you expressed comments about raising concerns, alarming numbers, eye-popping figures. Could you elaborate more on how this trend is concerning to you, and could you perhaps shed some light on why a government should suddenly rely so heavily on sole-sourced contracts?