Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First of all, I would say that the situation is perhaps even worse than you described it.
The department has been able to keep its equipment maintained and operational in the short term, but even there, with respect to the short-term situation, in my view it doesn't have proper information systems on its equipment and the costs to maintain that equipment.
Right now, the department is not in a situation to be able to allocate its own staff costs that it incurs, the costs of its own infrastructure, its maintenance and repairs, and its activities. That situation exists even today. The department has indicated, in response to our chapter, that it intends to have that information system in place by 2013.
With respect to going forward, the department is exploring what I believe to be some innovative and potentially quite productive approaches to arranging for the maintenance and repair of its equipment. In my view, those approaches have lost momentum. They haven't received the attention they deserve within the department, and I encourage the department to get on with exploring those approaches further, in particular because there are also opportunities for cost savings there, I believe.
With respect to the question on the financing, here again, particularly as the department moves to long-term and fewer contracts for maintaining its equipment, there will be challenges with financing, because the department only has stability and security of funding for the short-term but in some cases will be entering into contracts for repairs and maintenance of its equipment that will extend long beyond the funding horizon.